You're special, Liara, I want you to know that
by cassie.hack
Summary: Everything's just peachy with Shepard and Liara being back together on the new Normandy... Now all Shepard has to do is face her previous LIs after having her fun in ME2, keep the new ones at bay and save the entire galaxy yet again. Easy enough... right?
1. Chapter 1

**You're special, Liara. I want you to know** **that.**

.

_A/N: Just felt like starting a Liara-story... maybe it helps with that damn writer's block...  
._

**"The major has become very... capable."**

.

"That he has," Shepard agreed after a quick sideglance, the tone in her voice troubling Liara more than it should have... But before either one of them could say anything more, Kaidan's voice made them both turn their heads in his direction.

"Shepard! I found something."

Shepard immediately hurried out of the room near the tram station, oblivious to Liara's thoughtful gaze before the asari turned back to the terminal she had been working on, trying to get at least _some_ information out of it and, more importantly, to give her something to do to put the unsettling feeling she'd gotten aside, for at least a little while...

Sure, their first meeting only a couple of hours ago had been brief and they hadn't had time to talk yet (Kaidan and the Cerberus troops had made sure of that), but Liara started to worry that the joyful feeling she'd gotten at seeing Shepard for the first time after six months might not have been mutual...

* * *

_"Easy there, Lieutenant. She's with us."_

_The sound of Shepard's familiar voice sent a shiver of anticipation down Liara's spine and she quickly turned away from the two dead Cerberus Assault Troopers she'd just shot. "Shepard! Thank the goddess you're alive!" _

_Just then, Liara realized what Shepard and her squad must have seen her doing only seconds ago, and, surprised by the sudden embarassment she felt, she lowered her gaze. No one was supposed to see how easy it had gotten for her to kill, especially not Shepard... _

_Liara paused. After all, it was _Shepard_ she was worried about... Shepard, the 'Butcher of Torfa__**n'**__... Shepard, who'd never missed the opportunity to push mercenaries out of windows, shoot her enemie's hostages and, worst of all, didn't seem to be able to steer a vehicle without hitting at least one of the planet's inhabitants in the process... Liara still remembered her own remark about humanity's violent reputation as Shepard had (accidentally, as she'd assured the asari afterwards) run over a pyjak during one of their missions together all those years ago..._

_And still, whenever she'd been around Liara, the asari had always wondered how those stories could be true when the woman in front of her was smiling warmly at her throughout all their conversations on the old Normandy, always seeming eager to do whatever it took to make Liara feel welcome, to protect her... She still suspected Ashley's attempt to start an argument with her to be the main reason why Shepard had left her on Virmire, but that would have been too cruel, even for Shepard... wouldn't it?_

_Risking a quick, hesitant glance and noticing Shepard's gleaming eyes (and scars) as she approached her, Liara exhaled. The commander almost seemed proud of what she'd just seen... _Of course... _Liara sighed, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. _She had the same expression on her face the first time we met on Illium right after I'd threatened that contact...

_"You too, Liara." Shepard's hands in hers felt like they'd always belonged there, which, for Liara at least, they did, bringing her back to reality immediately._

_"I was so worried when the reports came in," Liara spoke softly before averting her eyes once again. "I'm... sorry about Earth." _

_Their closeness was interrupted far too soon by Kaidan who stepped forward, a sad expression on his face as he took it upon himself to answer. "Yeah. It was hard to leave like that."_

_Liara turned her head towards the interrupter, slightly irritated by Shepard's choice of companions. "Kaidan. I'm sorry." And before any more questions could arise in her, she turned away, adressing Shepard again. "But... why'd you come here?"_

_"Hackett ordered us to come. Said you'd know what was going on."_

_A slight smile appeared on Liara's face as she turned. "I do," she said over her shoulder while she approached the window nearby, showing the large building that held the Prothean Archives and the tramway leading there._

_Kaidan shot a quick sideglance at Shepard whose eyes were glued to Liara's back, the effect of her motion (intentional or not) obviously not lost on the commander. His eyes narrowed shortly before he followed Shepard and James._

* * *

"What have you got?" Shepard's voice rang out from outside the door.

Liara shut her eyes momentarily, taking a deep breath before she tried again to focus on the information in front of her. She'd always been able to distract herself by surrounding herself with all the data on the Shadow Broker base. She even remembered searching the extranet to calm herself whenever she'd been nervous on the old Normandy, but for some strange reason, it didn't seem to help her now...

* * *

_"I meant to come see you, but..." Lost for words as she felt Shepard's eyes on her, Liara's voice trailed of. To her great relief, a smile spread across Shepard's face only seconds later. _Goddess, how does she manage to make me weak in the knees every time she does that?

_"I would have liked that," Shepard started. "But under the circumstances... I think I can forgive you." She playfully approached Liara, who'd gotten used to Shepard's teasing by now without having to fear she'd offended the commander once again. _

_"You're too kind."_

* * *

"I'm with you, Shepard. I've always been with you." Kaidan's voice got through the memories clouding Liara's mind. She started rubbing her temples, trying not to read too much into his tone and at the same time trying not to analyze every word she and Shepard had exchanged in those past hours...

* * *

_"Stopping the Reapers is the only thing we should be focused on. It's not your fault." _

_"But what if we're wrong?" Liara spoke out what had worried her for a while now. "What if there's no way to stop them? What if these are our last days and we spend them scurrying around trying to solve a problem we can't fix?" _Instead of spending them with the ones we love? _A slight blush appeared on her cheeks at her naive thought._

_"Liara..."_

_"I know. I shouldn't think that way." She pushed herself off the desk she'd been leaning on and faced Shepard. Needing the offered reassurance as she noticed Shepard's sincere expression, she admitted, "I don't know how you do it. You've always stayed focused, even in the worst situations." Liara turned her head to the side, evading Shepard's eyes. There she was, worrying about their future, doubting it even, while she was standing in front of the woman who was doing everything in her power to prevent those fears from becoming reality..._

_"When there's so much at stake, I think about my friends, loved ones..." Liara felt Shepard's gloved hand on her cheek, making her heart skip a beat. "What I'd lose if I failed."_

_After needing a moment to contemplate Shepard's words, she smiled. "Me too." _

_"We'll stop them, Liara. Together."_

* * *

Liara sighed. This was pointless... She shut down the terminal and pushed herself off the desk, turning towards the door nearby.

"Think they bought it?"

"If they didn't, they'll figure it out soon enough," Shepard answered Kaidan's question with a sarcastic smile just as Liara joined them outside. Maybe a fight would help clear her head... Or at least distract her long enough...

. . .

"I got this one!" James' voice came through the comm in Shepard's helmet. All their heads turned as they saw the Normandy's shuttle speeding towards the hovering Cerberus shuttle Dr. Eva had just jumped in with the stolen data, and forcefully crashing into it only seconds later. The Cerberus' shuttle pilot immediately lost control over his aircraft and it started uncontrolledly speeding right towards them.

"Oh for the love of... Get down!" Shepard turned to her squad, but all they could do in the short time it took for the burning shuttle to crash to the ground was diving out of its immediate impact radius. After a loud crash, the shuttle came to a slithering halt.

The wind of the approaching storm was the only sound for a while before the roar of James' shuttle flying over the crash site jolted Shepard back into action. She quickly crawled to her feet and scanned her surroundings. _Liara!_ was her first thought as she saw the asari lying near the crashed shuttle. She dutifully checked on Kaidan first, who was lying closer to her, but was waved off as she approached him. _Fine, Mr. I'm-a-big-soldier-now..._

Feeling her anger rise, she harshly turned towards the still circling shuttle. _What's taking him so damn long?_ she thought while waving the shuttle over so that they could get the hell off this station as quickly as possible and maybe get medical attention for Liara. She turned her attention back to the asari who still wasn't on her feet yet, a worried expression appearing on Shepard's face...

* * *

Liara raised her head, feeling a sudden sharp pain shooting through her leg. She momentarily locked eyes with Shepard before James set the shuttle down between them, cutting off her view. As Kaidan bent down near her to pick up the pistol he'd lost, he noticed his team mate and hurried over to her, draping Liara's right arm across his shoulders and pulling her with him towards the waiting shuttle. "We need the data," she spoke against the storm, but before Kaidan could answer, a loud clang made them both turn back towards the crashed Cerberus shuttle. Its door was being tossed aside that moment and Dr. Eva's silhouette appeared in the burning doorway.

Without giving her time to react, Kaidan shoved Liara backwards while he drew his weapon and started firing at the approaching figure. Liara felt herself being pushed against something warm and before she could turn her head, she felt Shepard's arm protectively swing around her, holding her upright.

"Are you okay?" Liara heard Shepard's concerned question next to her ear and nodded. Their moment of closeness didn't last long as both of their eyes widened at the sight in front of them...

Dr. Eva had lifted Kaidan off the ground, his feet dangling helplessly while she was talking to someone over her comm, the roar of the approaching storm making it impossible to hear her words. She seemed to have received her orders shortly after and turned, forcefully smashing Kaidan's head against the nearby shuttle hull.

"No!" Shepard screamed helplessly and after Kaidan's head had hit the hull a second time, she drew her pistol and fired a warning shot to draw the Cerberus agent's attention away from her squad mate. It seemed to have worked, as Dr. Eva immediately dropped Kaidan's lifeless body and turned on her heels, now charging at Shepard who was still holding Liara in her free arm.

Liara closed her eyes and prepared herself to be shoved out of the way again, but all she felt was the recoil as Shepard fired her weapon. After a few quick (and obviously well-aimed) shots, Liara carefully opened her eyes again and was greeted by Dr. Eva's unmoving body only a few feet away from where they were standing. Exhaling in relief, she squeezed Shepard's arm once before freeing herself from the commander's hold and nodding towards Kaidan's body.

After a quick sideglance to reassure herself that Liara was able to stand on her own, Shepard nodded and run towards her team mate, throwing his lifeless body over her shoulder and turning to the just landed Normandy where James and Liara were already waiting for her on the exit ramp.

. . .

_"Kaidan needs medical attention." Liara leaned forward on the bed in the Med Bay, where Shepard had just placed Kaidan's bruised body, trying to force Shepard to look into her eyes that way. It was the only thing she could think of to say to get the commander's attention. Shepard's eyes were still on the body in front of her as she stared at his bruised face in disbelief. "We have to leave the Sol system," Liara implied, leaning in even closer, her tone finally bringing Shepard back to reality._

_"I know," came Shepard's weak response. _

_Liara's expression immediately softened. "The Citadel is our best chance. We can find help there," she reassured her, still slightly concerned about the fact that Shepard refused to look at her._

_"Get us to the Citadel, Joker," Shepard ordered before her attention was back on her wounded squad mate. "Hold on, Kaidan," she whispered softly._

_Liara involuntarily winced at Shepard's tone as the commander sternly ordered, "See what you and EDI can learn from that thing." Nodding towards Dr. Eva's body on a nearby bed. She felt a short, sharp sting in her chest at Shepard's sudden cold behavior but did as she was told while Shepard still refused to look up. This was not the time for jealousy..._

* * *

Liara gave a short, sad laugh. She was standing by the terminal in her office, trying to concentrate on the schematics they had of the Crucible, but she couldn't stop her mind from going back to Shepard's emotional reaction to Kaidan's injury. She knew it was wrong, but she couldn't help being concerned it might affect their relationship. If one could still call it that, anyway... Maybe she'd just always assumed, Shepard would stay with her forever. Maybe it had made her blind to some signs indicating otherwise... She shook her head.

* * *

_"Commander?"_

They were standing in the Normandy's War Room after Shepard had finished her first briefing with Admiral Hackett. Liara could tell every time Shepard's mind drifted off and it had been quite the challenge for her to jolt Shepard out of her grim thoughts every time to make her at least leave the Comm Room. So far, they'd only made it into the next room and Shepard wasn't making it easy on Liara to give her the kind of solace she'd received from the commander back on Mars...

_Shepard turned her head, her attention momentarily back on Liara once more. The tired look on Shepard's face made Liara irresolutely wring her hands as she continued. "Isn't it worth trying at least?" she offered._

_Shepard stared at her blankly for a while before she turned away. "I'm gonna check on Kaidan and James," she announced, leaving Liara behind in the empty War Room._

* * *

Liara exhaled deeply, rubbing her temples once again before she shut down the terminal and left her office, heading for the elevator. Whatever the reasons for her behavior, Shepard needed someone right now. And before the new Comm Specialist could get any ideas, Liara would go check on the commander herself...

_"Liara believes it can work and so do I." _Shepard's words, accompanied with her reassuring smile, during their meeting with the council ran through Liara's mind once more while she was waiting for the elevator to reach Shepard's cabin floor. She had started to wring her hands again as a sudden nervousness had already replaced her previous determination...

* * *

_Great, I'm on my first mission after six months and I already manage to almost lose one of my squad..._ Shepard grabbed the bottle of Peruvian Whiskey she'd bought at Huerta Memorial (which she'd actually intended to give Kaidan as soon as he'd wake up) and poured herself another drink. Under the circumstances, she'd decided, she could use the liquor more than her injured team mate right now... _It was my responsibility and I blew it... It's my damn fault! _She sighed, downing her drink. _And on top of that, _I_ end up being the one that has to carry his ass back to the ship. _She huffed._ It's like Virmire all over again... Damn it, my back hurts!_

A sound at her door made Shepard raise her head. She set the glass down on her desk, contemplated it for a second, took another sip (she _had_ just filled the glass again, after all...) and got up. As the door opened, she was greeted by the sight of a nervous Liara, still struggling with the question if coming up here had been the right choice...

"Shepard, I... We... didn't have time to talk but... if you..." She was cut off as Shepard took a step forward and wrapped her arms around her.

"I'm glad you're here," she whispered near Liara's ear. Liara exhaled in relief and a smile spread across her face as she tightened their embrace. Shepard sighed. "And I am _so_ sorry!"

. . .

With a gasp, Shepard shot up in her bed, the image of the boy being consumed by the flames still vivid. A warm arm was draped over her stomach, preventing her from entirely sitting upright. She turned her head and was greeted by Liara's peaceful face, her eyes still closed and her breathing even. Shepard carefully lifted the asari's arm off her midsection and turned to the other side of the bed, burying her head in her hands and trying to erase the memory of her nightmare.

She heard movement behind her and only seconds later felt a hand on her back. "Are you all right?" Liara's soft voice made her turn again, the concerned look on the asari's face making it impossible for her to force a reassuring smile and so she nervously ran a hand through her hair.

"I didn't get what you'd call a good night's rest," she admitted while sinking back into the pillows and Liara's arms.

"There's more to it than that, isn't there? What's really bothering you?" Liara propped up her head in her hand while she lazily drew circles across Shepard's stomach with the index finger of her free hand.

Shepard sighed. "When the Reapers hit... I could hear people screaming in the streets below me." She averted her eyes. "We left a lot of them behind."

Liara's finger stopped momentarily and then snaked its way up to Shepard's cheek. "There's no way for you to save them all," she said, forcing Shepard to look at her. "But I know you're doing everything you can, and you'll get back there in time to help."

"I hope you're right."

Liara leaned down and planted a soft kiss on Shepard's shoulder. "Don't blame yourself, Commander," she whispered.

Shepard turned to the side, facing Liara fully, a cautious smile on her lips. "I'm glad you're back." She leaned in to capture Liara's lips with hers, closing her eyes.

_'You can't help me...'_

Shepard withdrew, rubbing her forehead as she sank back into the pillows and sighed. "There was this boy..." She started after a pause, but immediately seemed to regret her words, waving her hand dismissively. "I'm sorry... forget it."

As Liara looked up again, she noticed Shepard's pained expression, even though the commander seemed to try her hardest not let it show on her face. She nodded, more to herself, and ran a hand through Shepard's hair. She didn't even have to guess what must have caused Shepard to wake up in the middle of the night, and knowing that she might be able to at least ease Shepard's mental pain, she whispered, "I want you to show me the dream..."

* * *

_A/N: Heh, shouldn't every story start with a little jealousy? :) Don't worry, the next chapters should be happier, I just wanted to write it from Liara's perspective 'cause even I was surprised at Shepard's cold behavior towards her... I kinda felt like I owed it to her for being there for three games... oh, and for that "I do"-turn she does in the game... Thanks for that, Liara, made my day :)  
On another note: I know that asari don't have eyebrows, but I'll still use that word instead of 'marking shaped like an eyebrow' (it's shorter :) )  
In case you wonder, I'll stick as close to the game as possible, might rearrange some scenes, but when I quote the actual game, I just want to make sure, I quote it right (I'm not just too lazy to come up with my own dialogues... :) )  
It also looks like that pyjak-story will haunt Shepard forever... :) I'll definitely add its origin to a ME1 story...  
I guess that's it for the moment. Let me know what you think...  
_


	2. Chapter 2

**"Commander Shepard? I'm Specialist- Oh."**

**.  
**

Both Shepard and Liara turned around as they heard Samantha exit the elevator just outside of Shepard's cabin. Liara's eyes narrowed. The disappointed tone in the Comm Specialist's voice was unmistakable... "I beg your pardon. I thought you were alone." _At least I hoped you would be..._

Liara turned her head back to Shepard and carefully (maybe a bit slower than usual, just to make sure Samantha saw it) let her hand slide down Shepard's arm before she turned and approached the elevator Samantha had just exited.

"I was just leaving," she announced after a short glare at the Comm Specialist before she entered the elevator, its doors immediately hissing shut behind her.

Obviously relieved that they were finally alone (and not in the slightest intimidated by Liara's glare, as it seemed... _if_ she'd even noticed it), Samantha started again as if she'd never been interrupted in the first place... "Commander Shepard? I'm Comm Specialist Samantha Traynor, with Alliance R&D." She saluted, not quite sure yet on how to address the commander. The reports she'd read had been a bit vague... While Shepard didn't seem to mind being addressed and treated in a friendly and casual way by her friends, there were also reports indicating that she didn't approve of nicknames, namely: being called "princess" in public (which Samantha would have to remember, since it was a nickname she'd often used in previous relationships)...

Shepard, surprised by the abrupt ending of her conversation with Liara, regretfully took her eyes off the closed elevator doors and turned her attention to the woman now standing in front of her. She nodded, encouraging her to continue.

"I was part of the team retrofitting the Normandy after you turned it over to the Alliance." Samantha took a step forward, her heart immediately skipping a beat at the sudden closeness. She took a deep breath, which sadly didn't help with her nervousness, before she blurted out, "There weren't many of us aboard when the Reapers hit..." She trailed off, lost for words as she felt Shepard's blue eyes on her.

A smile appeared on Shepard's face as she noticed the Specialist's nervousness and, oblivious to the real reason Samantha's heart was pounding, she raised her hands. "Slow down, Specialist Traynor. You're doing fine," she said, trying to calm the nervous woman in front of her.

Samantha visibly relaxed, a shy smile tugging at the corner of her mouth. "Thank you." She sighed. "I worked in a lab. I never thought I'd be serving on a ship." _So close to you..._

Shepard nodded towards her cabin, a slight smirk on her lips. "Why don't you tell me about the retrofits?"

_You can do it! _Samantha took another deep breath before she followed Shepard into her cabin, trying her hardest not to stare at the commander's backside all too obvious.

. . .

"Whole worlds are being lost to the Reapers. What more will it take?" Liara turned her head as she heard the door to her office hiss open. She smiled at Shepard who casually leaned against its frame, immediately being cornered by Glyph.

"Who knows?" Joker's voice came over the comm as she made her way over to the commander, still scrolling through the datapad in her hand, showing even more devastating reports on the Reaper invasion. "Hell, maybe the Council's just taking petty revenge for Shepard hanging up on them all those years ago."

Liara's head shot up. "Wait. Shepard did what?" She'd always wondered why the commander's talks to the council had been so short... Most of the time, she'd had just enough time to sit down on her chair before Shepard was standing in her quarters again, eager to start another conversation...

"Sorry, I think we're going through some dark matter. Hello? Hello?" Joker's voice broke off after a, admittedly, very lousy imitation of static.

Liara's head shot back to Shepard, who had found a sudden interest in the floor beneath her boots, biting her lower lip guiltily while at the same time trying to stiffle a chuckle at the memory. Even Glyph seemed to have sensed the tense atmosphere as he returned to his station, turning away from his boss' narrowed eyes and feigning to scan the still empty upgrade terminal he'd just explained to Shepard.

Liara put the datapad down and took another slow, threatening step towards the commander. Shepard raised her head, an apologetic smile on her lips, but before Liara could start with her accusations, a concerned look crossed her face at the sight in front of her. "Shepard, what happened?" A cooling hand caressed Shepard's bruised cheek.

Shepard shook her head, waving her off. "Ah, that's nothing..." She chuckled and smiled proudly. "You should see Vega down in the Shuttle Bay..."

Liara's eyebrow rose.

The commander shrugged. "I was just doing my round, getting to know my crew... And if he wants to go all manly on me and the only thing he can think of to impress me with are his muscles..." She spread her arms. "That's what he gets."

Liara's eyebrow remained in place. _If I didn't know better..._

"Besides, I wanted to punch him for that stunt back on Mars anyway..." Shepard's expression turned serious. "He could have seriously injured you..."

A slight blush appeared on Liara's cheeks at Shepard's concern about her safety. She had to admit that, over the two years she'd mourned her, followed by the time Shepard had been on the mission to destroy the Collector base, she had forgotten how it felt to have someone care about her well-being... But maybe that was just Shepard's way of treating her squad in general... She swallowed, images of Shepard's expression after Kaidan's injury shooting through her head.

"Shepard..." She locked eyes with her. "With everything still ahead of us... If something happens on a mission, if either one of us are hurt... Well, _even more_ hurt..." she added, smiling shyly as she touched Shepard's cheek again.

The commander winced slightly. "Don't underestimate the pain! Brute's got a fist like a brick, I tell you..."

Liara's smile widened. She knew the commander well enough to know that a bruised cheek couldn't actually hold Shepard back from completing her mission, but it was still endearing to think that Shepard might have kept the bruise just to show it to Liara in hopes of some consolation... If that _was_ the reason she had come by... Shepard's empty expression shot through Liara's mind once more, making her regret that she hadn't joined with Shepard the night before and was now forced to get her closure, as humans put it, "the old-fashioned way"... She sighed inwardly. She should have explored Shepard's mind while she'd been showing her the nightmare...

She took a deep breath and continued, "Shepard, there's something I need to ask before we go any further. It's been years since we were together. Are you still interested in us?"

Shepard smiled at her. "Well, since I've obviously not made that clear the night before..." she started and Liara rolled her eyes, thinking back to last night...

Whatever her plans might have been (not that she'd had any, of course...), soon after Shepard had greeted her, the whiskey consumed beforehand had taken its toll and Shepard wouldn't have even been able to reach her bed without Liara's help. And as soon as her head had hit the pillow, the commander was sleeping peacefully in a slightly irritated asari's arms...

Shepard jolted her out of her thoughts as she took Liara's hands into her own, gently stroking them with her thumbs. "I didn't forget you, Liara, I never have." Locking eyes with her, she added, "I want to make us work."

Liara exhaled in relief. "Good. I was getting worried."

Shepard's eyebrow rose, a playful smile on her lips. "Oh really? You mean because of the horde of ex-lovers I've gathered over the past year?"

Liara's eyebrow rose playfully and she winked at Shepard mischievously. "Don't worry, Commander, I think I can manage _those_..."

. . .

_How dare she?_

Liara glared angrily at Jack who'd just hit Shepard in the face and was now yelling at the commander right after they'd saved her and her students from attacking Cerberus troops. "Damn it, how many times did I tell you not to trust Cerberus?"

Shepard rubbed her aching chin. "Those troops had you on the ropes, Jack. I just saved your ass," she stated, her eyes indicating that she wasn't actually worried or even surprised by the ex-convicts reaction. Seeing the slight smile on Shepard's face, Liara still narrowed her eyes but crossed her arms in front of her chest, deciding against smashing the biotic in front of her against the nearest wall. There still might be time for that later, though...

"You want a medal?" Jack sneered but then gave a short laugh and punched Shepard on the shoulder. "It's been a while... Seems like they finally let you on board of a ship again, eh?"

Shepard playfully crossed her arms in front of her chest. "Well, at least I wasn't the one running off as soon as the authorities showed up..." She nodded towards the students curiously leaning over the railing above them. "But seems like they still found you..."

"Yeah, Alliance brass knew I helped you." Jack shrugged her shoulders. "They offered me this, and apparently the students responded well to my teaching style," she added, raising her voice and smiling proudly at her students.

"The psychotic biotic."

"I will destroy you!" came the student's responses from above, reminding Shepard of all the times she'd fought alongside the tattooed woman...

"I have to say, Jack, you look good." Shepard smiled, oblivious to Liara's still narrowed eyes.

Jack rolled her eyes. "What, you wanna pin me against the wall in the subdeck again?"

Liara's jaw dropped.

_Oh, don't pretend you didn't like it... _"That's not what I meant."

Noticing Liara's reaction, Jack smiled and shrugged her shoulders. "Yeah, well... maybe some of your attitude _rubbed_ off on me..."

Liara's head shot back to Shepard, and noticing the movement from the corner of her eye, the commander finally turned her head, biting her lower lip as she saw the asari's expression. "Erm, I think we should find a way to get the students out of here..." she murmured before activating her comm. "Sanders, any ideas?"

Shepard apologetically pointed at her helmet and turned her back on the small group as she listened to Kahlee Sanders' voice telling her what to do next. Jack leaned against a nearby wall, her arms still crossed and her eyes still on Liara. The asari momentarily considered shocking Jack by revealing her real name (just for the fun of it), but decided against it, instead she let her eyes wander over the ex-convicts body, wondering what it might have been, Shepard had-

"Be right back," the commander announced as she ran past the small group and up the nearby stairs.

"OK, sure. Take your time..." Jack murmured, her eyes back on Liara as soon as Shepard (or rather her well-shaped backside, as Liara suspected) was out of sight. An awkward silence followed before Liara felt a hand patting her shoulder. She turned to Garrus who'd been silent throughout the previous conversation. His mandibles twitched as he smiled at her. "I'm sure she'll explain it all to you later..." he offered and Liara nodded, a determined expression on her face.

"Oh, _that_ she will..." Although she'd already gathered quite the knowledge about Shepard's past year (she was the Shadow Broker after all... she learned things...), it couldn't hurt to hear about the undocumented encounters she'd missed...

Liara still felt Jack's gaze upon her, but didn't even bother to engage herself in a staring contest. It was immature and she'd win anyway... She still couldn't stop the sting she felt in her heart, though. She knew from the beginning that Shepard had a... rather colorful past, but what bothered her more was the thought that the woman in front of her had been a part of Shepard's life when she, herself, had been absent... She hadn't been part of Shepard's squad when they'd taken on the collectors, she hadn't helped the commander during this time, but the tattooed woman eyeing her now had... Well, _if_ she'd actually been a help, that was... Her eyebrow rose involuntarily. Judging by the woman's previous outburst, Liara doubted she'd been an essential (or very stable) part of Shepard's success...

"Erm, Commander, I think the console you're looking for is over there..." they heard one of the student's voice above them and not long after that, all turned their heads as they heard Shepard's heavy footsteps on the opposite stairs.

"Done, now let's get your students out of here," she declared before jumping down the remaining steps.

Liara sighed. _She really likes those vaults she's learned from James while being grounded..._

* * *

"So... the subdeck, hm?" Liara crouched behind cover next to Shepard.

"I thought you already knew that..." Shepard signaled Garrus to overload a Centurion's shields before leaning out of cover and taking out an Atlas' pilot with her sniper rifle.

"Well, Cerberus obviously didn't have surveillance cameras on the subdeck." Liara gave a short laugh. "Why would they?" she added while killing a Guardian with a single shot through the "mail slot" of his shield, as Shepard and Garrus had once referred to before they'd burst out laughing. Liara hadn't even bothered asking..

"What about the Engine Room? Did they have cameras there?" Shepard asked cautiously while shooting at the turret on a Combat Engineer's back, causing it to explode.

Liara's eyebrow rose in surprise. "What? No." She created a Singularity, lifting a group of approaching Guardians off the ground. "Why would the Illusive Man have surveillance cameras installed in the Engine Room?" Noticing Shepard's apologetic smile, she leaned out of cover and let the Singularity detonate loudly with a Warp before she turned back to Shepard, her eyes narrowing. "_What_?"

Being once more reminded of what a powerful biotic Liara was, Shepard blinked, hoping to deflect the asari's rage away from her... "Did I already tell you how beautiful you look today?" Shepard cleared her throat. "That outfit new? Very nice! It suits you..." she offered before rolling out of cover and charging at another approaching group of Centurions, preferring their blazing guns to the asari's glare at the moment...

* * *

"In the Engine Room?"

"Yep."

"On the cold, hard floor?"

"Uh-huh."

"I imagine that can't have been very... comfortable..."

Shepard gave a short laugh. "Nope, definitely not."

"And was that the last one?" Liara looked at Shepard as the door in front of them opened, the Combat Engineer in the next room dropping to the ground only seconds later after a well-aimed headshot.

"Pretty much, yeah..." Shepard rubbed the nape of her neck and turned to Garrus who was following behind them. "You keeping up, big guy?"

"Sure." Garrus gave her the thumbs up. "After hearing about all your romantic escapades for the last twenty minutes..." he murmured, sighing quietly. "And here I always thought _I_ had reach..."

"Pretty much?" Liara sighed. "Did you sleep with everyone on the ship?"

"Not _everyone_..." Shepard stated while climbing into the empty Atlas seemingly just waiting for her. She scanned the Atlas' interior and nodded as soon as she'd gotten accustomed to the controls, the excitement about her new "toy" prominent on her face.

Noticing Liara opening her mouth again, she raised a hand. "Heads up, I hear gunshots. The students need our help," she declared before staggeringly steering the Atlas up the stairs leading to the hall near the docking area where Jack and her students were already facing the approaching Cerberus troops, Liara and Garrus following behind her (still keeping a safe distance, though... just in case).

. . .

_Purgatory_'s loud music drowned out everything else as soon as Shepard had entered the nightclub. She let her eyes wander around the place, trying not to get too distracted by the conversation between the two marines to her left...

"I'm a woman? Holy crap, I'm a woman! Where did these tits come from?"

"Mel, listen..."

"Were they cloaked? Are they infiltrator tits? Could there be more of them hiding?"

A wide grin on her face, Shepard climbed the stairs leading to the upper level of the nightclub and immediately spotted Jack sitting at a table nearby. The ex-convict raised her head from the datapad in her hand as soon as she noticed Shepard approach her table.

"Ugh! This sucks," she declared and threw the datapad she'd been reading back on the table.

"What've you got there?" Shepard leaned forward, turning the datapad to get a better look at it.

"Duty roster for the students. It's what I do for fun now. But speaking of..." Jack's eyes lit up as she grabbed Shepard's wrist and pulled her down to her, their faces now only inches apart.

Shepard gave her an apologetic smile as she pulled back. Jack nodded. "That asari, huh?" Shepard shrugged her shoulders, the smile still in place. "Yeah, figured as much..." Jack leaned back in her chair before she continued. "Hell, if you've turned into a wimpy little sissy that likes to read self-written poems to her lover at night, I don't wanna have you anymore anyway!" she declared, a mischievous smile on her lips.

Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest, challengingly raising her eyebrows. "I'm hurt... Last time I checked, _you_ were the one composing poems, Jacqueline Nought..."

Jack's jaw dropped. "I..." She scratched her forehead. "How'd you...?" Biting her lip, she shook her head and suddenly burst out, "Fuck this shit, let's do something else!"

Shepard nodded, a satsified smile on her face as she followed Jack up the stairs leading to the dancefloor.

"Everybody knows you can't dance, Shepard. This ought to be fun..." she yelled into Shepard's ear, a victorious smile on her face.

Shepard cleared her throat, placing a hand over her heart as she started, "My soul burns with a fire of darkness, quenched only in the pain of loneliness-"

"Fuck you!"

_Heh, no need to tell her that I've had plenty of time to improve my dancing skills while I was grounded..._

. . .

"Can I help you?"

Kelly's hand immediately dropped from her coat's zipper at the unfamiliar (and unexpected) voice. She spun around, turning away from the aquarium she'd just inspected.

An asari was standing in the doorway to Shepard's cabin, her arms folded as she eyed the former yeoman skeptically.

"I..." Kelly swallowed once under the hostile glare and started wringing her hands.

The asari raised her eyebrows expectantly, waiting for Kelly to continue.

"I was just..." Kelly motioned towards the aquarium. "I promised Shepard to bring her her fish back and I just thought..." She swallowed once more. "I just thought I should make sure they're well. You see, taking care of that many different fish requires a certain... carefulness... After all, there are-"

"Illium Skald fish, Thessian Sunfish and Prejek Paddle fish, yes, I am aware of that." Liara nodded, hiding her smile at the sight of Kelly's perplexed expression. "Not to mention Shepard's newest purchases... Koi fish, Striped Dartfish, Belan Jellyfish and a Khar'shan Snapping Eel. Which is quite the collection by now..." She motioned towards the upper half of the aquarium. "That's why I gave her an Aquarium VI to take care of such a wide variety of feeding needs..."

_I've been replaced by a VI?_

A smile started tugging at the corner of Liara's mouth as she noticed the former yeoman's hand clutching her coat, for once thankful that Shepard had decided to pay _Purgatory_ a visit, giving her the chance to deal with the commander's former yeoman herself... "I'm afraid Commander Shepard has not returned yet, but if you'd like to wait for her..." She took a step towards the squirming woman. "Here, let me take that coat for you-"

"NO!" Kelly burst out, waving her hand dismissively. "There's no need for that..." She giggled nervously and turned towards the door. "I'll... I'll just leave now."

_That's what I thought... _Liara nodded, a satisfied smile on her face as she took a step aside to let Kelly storm past her and into the elevator. "I'll tell her you came by..."

* * *

_A/N: I'll add all author's notes for future chapters to the end of the chapter, since the title's already part of the chapter (just in case you wondered...)_

_Well then... my dear readers (and reviewers, thank you!), I'm starting to realize that working on a couple of different stories at the same time might not have been the best idea... In other words: I'm so sorry for the delay... I still don't exactly know where I'm going with the story, but I guess I'll decide that in time... For now there will be more serious chapters and then there will be... well... chapters like this one... (Oh Kelly... Can't blame a girl for trying, I guess...)_

_To your reviews... brownton, I'm glad the memory parts weren't too weird, 'cause there are bound to be more of those..._

_And DragonsWillFly, of course! :) I could never forget about Liara! I loved her in every ME part, but ME3 reminded me of how much I've actually missed her..._

_Since I've got the majority of the story written down already, I might as well add some sneak peeks... If I keep up the upload tempo, you'll have forgotten all about them by the time I upload the actual chapter anyway... :) The story starts a bit rusty, but it should get better... sneak peek?_

* * *

"Liara?"

Garrus carefully stepped into Liara's office, noticing her sitting at her terminal. She turned her head and pointed an accusing finger at him, but he held up his hands, both of them holding a bottle, before she could open her mouth.

"You're coming with me!" he ordered, securing both bottles against his chest with one hand and pulling her up with his other, now free, hand.

"Garrus, I-"

"No excuses, T'Soni..."

Garrus led her straight to the newly decorated Port Observation Deck. Liara turned her head in awe as she took in the room she'd never entered before, what with all her work and... her lacking need to socialize with certain members of Shepard's crew that did seem to spend a lot of time in here... But to her great relief, James seemed to have found something else to occupy his time at the moment.

She relaxed and sat down on the, admittedly very comfortable, couch, leaning back and crossing her legs. Garrus placed both bottles on the table and approached the nearby bar to get glasses for them. "Found a stash of Serrice Ice Brandy in here a while ago... I hope Dr. Chakwas doesn't keep count..." He turned and approached her with a turian equivalent of a smile. "So... I heard about your... incident in the CIC..."

Liara buried her head in her hands and groaned.

* * *

"Liara, are you sure your info drone is just analyzing data?"

Liara's head rose. "I... yes, Glyph is programmed to-" She stopped, her eyes narrowing as she observed her "assistant" at his nearby workstation. Her eyes widened. "By the Goddess, Glyph, what are you-" She jumped up, almost stumbling over some datapads spread out around them as she hurried over to the upgrade terminal and grabbed the drone, inspecting it thoroughly.

Shepard propped herself up on her elbows, an amused smile on her face as she watched Liara catching the struggling drone in a stasis field while connecting it to her terminal, quickly scanning the data on the monitor. She gasped. "Oh my..." Turning her face back to the drone, she exclaimed, "Who set you up for this? You were supposed to monitor and analyze all incoming data, not..." Her voice trailed off as her cheeks darkened.

"Heh, I thought the red light indicated something like that..."

Liara turned her head back to Shepard, still exasperated. "This isn't the time to joke, Shepard. Imagine what would have happened if he'd leaked it!"

Shepard shrugged. "Well, I guess there are worse vids on the extranet..."

"This isn't..." Liara shook her head. "How could this happen anyway?"

"Oh, I think I know how..."

* * *

"It is well known to have happened many times before." Benezia sat down at the edge of Liara's bed, reaching over to close the book on Prothean history her daughter had been reading.

"Mother!" Liara exclaimed, averting her eyes as she felt her cheeks heat up.

"I simply want my daughter to be prepared. I want you to know everything there is to know before you leave, little wing."

Liara started rubbing her forehead in irritation. "Mother, I will be spending most of my time alone on digsites. If..." She bit her lower lip. "Should the time come that I might consider... mating-"

"Trust me, little wing, you will meet someone special one day..." Benezia crossed her legs, a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Maybe you'll run into a dashing krogan mercenary during one of your digs..." she offered.

Liara's eyebrow rose. "I don't know if a krogan-asari-union would produce anything useful..." she mused.

"Oh, you'd be surprised..." Her mother's eyes lit up for a moment, a knowing smile on her lips.

* * *

_So, these are just a couple of examples... Mean, I know... :) You'll just have to wait if you want to know when they take place... and what "CIC accident" Garrus is talking about. You won't have to wait long for that conclusion, though... I hope it'll be worth the long waiting periods..._


	3. Chapter 3

**"Feel free to look around..."**

.

Shepard's eyes settled on Liara. The asari didn't take her eyes off her terminal however and continued typing commands, still not completely able to hide her smile... It seemed, nearly every time Shepard visited her in her cabin, the great Commander Shepard was almost a bit intimidated by all the terminals and monitors the asari had set up. By now, Liara had gotten used to giving Shepard a couple of minutes to get accustomed to her office every now and then, letting her eyes wander around in awe as if expecting to find something changed (which was absurd, really, Shepard should know that... Liara liked her office to be in perfect order at all times). But the three minutes Liara had granted her were over now...

"Was _Purgatory_ to your liking, Commander?" Her eyes remained on the terminal. Still, the image showing _Purgatory_'s surveillance feeds had been closed a few seconds ago...

"Indeed, it was..." Shepard smiled, turning her head from side to side one last time to take in Liara's office. It still amazed her how the asari had managed to set up her Shadow Broker office in this small room... "I had to clear things with Jack."

"I see..." Liara finally turned towards the still awestruck commander. "And may I ask to what conclusion you came? Should I, maybe, start getting, as you humans say, 'inked' to still count as her competition?" She innocently shrugged her shoulders, glancing at one of the still open windows on her terminal before adding, "A 'trampstamp' maybe?"

Shepard grinned, surprised how endearing it was to hear Liara use human terms so casually. She challengingly crossed her arms in front of her chest. "You did an extranet search, didn't you?" Liara simply shrugged her shoulders once more, an eyebrow raised in feigned indifference.

Shepard's grin widened. She suspected the asari to still spend a great deal of her free time doing research on human culture just like she had on the original Normandy all those years ago... And speaking of old times... Noticing the gleam of mischief in Liara's eyes, a smile started tugging at Shepard's lips at the unspoken challenge... _Let's see if I'm still able to get the great Shadow Broker flustered... For old times' sake..._

She cleared her throat. "To answer your previous question..." Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest, leaning slightly backwards as she shrugged in feigned seriousness. "I'm sure my name would look _very _good on your lower back..."

Liara's jaw dropped, unsure what to say. That was definitely not the reaction she'd expected... _Goddess, she wouldn't really make me do that... would she?_

Shepard smiled as she noticed the asari's horrified expression at the thought of having needles constantly penetrating her skin for a few hours... There it was, hidden underneath the mask of the superior Shadow Broker, deep within... the shy scientist she'd met all those years ago on Therum...

Deciding that she'd enjoyed the moment enough, Shepard quickly continued, "But I'm sure we'll have time to discuss that later... Maybe you're more of a unicorn type anyway..."

Liara's brows furrowed. Unicorn. She'd have to research that term later...

"About Jack..." Shepard's voice broke through her thoughts and Liara's eyes settled on her again. The commander shrugged. "It was fun, but nothing more."

Liara nodded, obviously relieved. Both that Shepard wasn't interested in the ex-convict anymore _and_ that she'd dropped the tattoo topic for now... But, just to be sure, she quickly went on, "I'm afraid you've also just missed your former yeoman..."

"Kelly was here? Did she bring my fish?"

Liara's eyebrow rose. "Among other things, yes."

Shepard winced. "That outfit again, huh?"

Shrugging her shoulders and shooting a quick sideglance at her terminal, Liara answered, "According to her latest purchases, it is likely she had, indeed, something... special planned for you..."

"Well, how unfortunate that I've missed it, then..." Shepard chuckled, but a sudden thought made her pause. Her expression turned serious within seconds and she closed the remaining distance between them and took Liara's hands in her own. "I want you to see it," she said, determined.

Liara's brows furrowed in confusion. "See what?"

"Everything. I want you to see everything that has happened with them... With Jack and Kelly and-"

"I don't think I need to know every detail, Commander."

"Okay, well, maybe not _everything_, but there is something I want to show you... Something you deserve to know..." Shepard squeezed Liara's hands and the asari finally nodded, smiling shyly as her eyes turned to black... and immediately back to blue again.

Her eyebrow rose. "Well, I certainly didn't know Ms. Lawson had a liking for-" She paused, searching her memory. "What type of garment was that anyway? _I_ always thought the outfits in Chora's Den were revealing, but that..." Judging by Shepard's mouth hanging open and her widened eyes, Liara decided the commander was momentarily unable to answer and so she simply shrugged, an amused smile on her face. "It must be a human thing..."

After a few more seconds, Shepard finally found her speech again. "That's not the one!" she exclaimed, a blush creeping up her cheeks as she nervously started rubbing the nape of her neck, trying to push the memory as far away as possible to bury it somewhere deep (deep!) within her mind... She sighed inwardly. It had looked so easy whenever Liara or Shiala had exchanged memories or cyphers with her...

_Get a grip! _Taking a deep breath, she shook her head to clear her thoughts and locked eyes with Liara once more. "Okay... ready?"_ Don't think about Miranda in black lingerie! Don't think about Miranda in black lingerie!_

Liara couldn't stop the amused smile from spreading across her face at the commander's inner turmoil, but she decided to let it go... for now... She nodded and – to give Shepard some kind of warning – placed a soft hand on the commander's cheek as her eyes turned to black once more.

She carefully entered Shepard's mind and was immediately overwhelmed by all the memories Shepard offered her without hesitation. Liara felt a fluttering feeling in her stomach as Shepard opened up her mind to her so completely, trusting her with every memory she chose. Careful, almost shy, she entered one of the memories swirling through both their minds now...

* * *

_Jack jumped off the table and stretched her arms as she walked to her bench, picking up her pants in one smooth motion on her way there. Shepard swung her legs off the table and remained in a sitting position, staring at the floor absent-mindedly._

It didn't help._ Shepard leaned forward, burying her head in her hands. _It's not her...

_"You're not one of those people that start crying after sex, right?" Shepard's head turned and she saw Jack eyeing her suspiciously. "'Cause I'm not gonna walk back over there and hug you," the convict added. And to show her just how serious she was, the tattooed woman crossed her arms in front of her chest and leaned back against the wall._

_A mocking sigh. "And here I thought we could cuddle for the rest of the night..." Shepard smiled and jumped off the table, pulling up her pants and starting to search for her shirt._

_Jack snorted. "Yeah, right... You should go ask the cheerleader if that's what you want. I'm sure she's a lot cuddlier with all that padding..." For a moment, Jack seemed to contemplate that idea herself as she slowly licked her lips before her eyes settled on Shepard again. "But listen, if you want to do this again, you know where to find me. No strings attached... Just... don't expect anything more..."_

Nothing more... _Shepard paused as she bent down to pick up her shirt from the floor. _

_She had never been one for long-term relationships. She'd had her fun, sure, but nothing more. Partly because fraternization was against the Alliance's regulations (not that she'd cared much about those, she'd simply made sure to keep those things out of her files) and partly because she'd never served alongside someone long enough to even bother thinking about a serious relationship. And all of this had served her well until she'd met a certain Prothean expert trapped in a mine on Therum... _

_But things had changed and Liara was right to be cautious. Shepard couldn't even imagine how hard it must have been for the asari to mourn her for two years. She couldn't drag her into this... Not again. Liara's hurt expression on Illium a couple of days ago had told her enough. And considering the mission that still lay ahead of her, she couldn't put Liara through all of this a second time..._

_So why not go back to her old habits? Especially after seeing what breaking them meant for the people around her... 'Nothing more' Shepard could handle... _

_A smile appeared on her face as she turned. "Sure thing, Jack."_

* * *

Liara tried to pull back. She wanted to grab Shepard's physical self, tell her how wrong she'd been in her assumptions. How wrong they both had been, but she was already being enveloped in another memory...

* * *

_Shepard leaned forward on her couch, barely following Kelly's movement in front of her. Her eyes narrowed. The woman in front of her was certainly going out of her way to distract her and Shepard was sure a lot of people would barely be able to restrain themselves at this sight - would appreciate what was being presented to them - but her own body just felt... numb... empty..._

_Sighing, Shepard leaned back on the couch, casually placing her arm on its backrest and crossing her legs. Kelly didn't seem to notice. Sometimes, Shepard wondered if her yeoman was fully aware of what happened around her or if she was in her own little world... But that didn't really matter. It only gave Shepard more time to think about the last few months..._

_Yes, she'd gotten cocky. Having a ship full of people admiring you and being willing to do anything to please you does that to a person... Or maybe it was the fact that she'd, more than once, been told to be humanity's last hope..._

_At first, she'd simply been confused. It wasn't every day to wake up after two years when you were supposed to be dead... In her last moments floating through space before she'd died, Shepard had even thought she'd found some kind of peace... only to wake up to a glaring light - after what felt like just a short nap for her - and being told that she still had a purpose, a job to do..._

_Maybe that's what had made her selfish. She'd started to believe she deserved the attention people gave her after coming back from the dead just to get assigned to a mission that would likely be her last once again. She'd been aware of the looks her squad had given her, and since her chances of surviving a suicide mission were slim to none, why shouldn't she make the best of the time she had left? Might as well spend it with people who were likely to end up dead in the end, just like her..._

_But then the suicide mission came... and they survived. Almost her entire squad –including her – came out of the mission that was supposed to be their – or at least her – last,, alive... Everyone coping with that fact in their own way (which, for Kelly, seemed to mean celebrating her life by putting on a tight outfit and shaking everything she had...). For Shepard though, it didn't make sense... She had leaped through the Omega-4 relay, fully convinced that she wouldn't come back, and a part of her was almost... disappointed?_

_She ran a hand through her hair. What was she supposed to do now?_

* * *

Liara bit her lower lip and she finally managed to pull back, both mentally and physically. She averted her eyes and it took her a while to contemplate what she'd just experienced. She hadn't just seen the memory, she'd felt it. She'd felt everything Shepard had felt and those feelings were completely alien to her...

Finally able to take a deep breath, she whispered, "What about now?"

She was still not able to look at Shepard, a bit overwhelmed by all those emotions – that weren't even hers – rushing through her and instead let her eyes wander along the floor at her feet. She hadn't known... If she had, she would have never done the things she had, she'd have never pushed her away...

Shepard smiled as she pulled Liara close and into a tight embrace. "Now I want to make every minute count," she whispered into Liara's neck. "If I'm to die, I don't want to regret not having spent as much time with the one I love as possible." She sighed, her warm breath sending a pleasant shiver down Liara's spine, despite the sadness still rushing through the asari. "It might have taken me some time to admit it, but at least I know who that is now..."

Liara pulled back once more, only to take Shepard's face in both hands and press her lips against the human's a second later. One of her hands reached up and into Shepard's hair, pulling her even closer as she pressed herself against her. If Shepard was surprised, she didn't let it show, instead she wrapped her arms around the asari's lithe form, tightening their embrace as much as possible without crushing her.

Liara smiled against Shepard's lips. She would make sure to replace Shepard's painful memories with positive ones, even if it meant melding and forcing all of her embarassing early maiden memories into Shepard's mind...

She tensed for a second, almost biting off Shepard's tongue. She'd definitely leave out her 'Check and Mate' obsession phase... _Goddess, I couldn't look her in the eyes anymore after that..._

. . .

_Shepard was nervous. She ran a hand through her hair and sighed. She was never nervous! She'd faced a yahg, a creature that, up to this point, she hadn't even known existed, in hand to hand combat and hadn't even felt a hint of nervousness, but pacing through her cabin right now, she feared she might collapse at any second..._

_She stopped and straightened her dress for what seemed like the hundredth time. She wasn't used to wearing dresses. They were clingy and just... unpractical... The only time she'd worn this dress before had been for Donovan Hock's party and even then she'd been more than thankful when Kasumi had allowed her to change back into her armor again... But she'd seen the dress Liara had worn when she'd entered the Normandy. The sight of it had taken her breath away and it had almost immediately made the commander spin on her heels and rush back to her cabin... She couldn't greet Liara in her standard day-to-day uniform! There should be a dress stashed away _somewhere_ in her cabin..._

_Her omni-tool blinked and her eyes started darting around the room nervously. Should she sit or stay? Was her cabin tidy enough? Were there any dead fish in the aquarium? Her eyes fell on the table. The wine! She quickly hurried over to her couch and started filling the two glasses she'd prepared. She just hoped Liara liked the asari wine she'd bought from that bartender at the _Eternity_ bar (after assuring herself that it _wasn't_ the previously praised mystery drink, which had caused her more than one hallucination that fateful day)..._

_The door to her cabin hissed open and Shepard raised her head just as she closed the bottle, almost dropping it at the sight in front of her... Liara had always managed to make Shepard's heart race, but the thought of her changing into the dress she wore now just for her... Shepard swallowed once, but then realized that, for some strange reason, her nervousness had vanished, unnoticed. A smile spread across her face as she approached Liara._

_Yes, the feelings were definitely back. She felt them coursing through her entire body, her mind. She'd definitely started caring again... _It's her... _Her smile widened at that simple realization. Whatever her reasons might have been (she couldn't even remember them anymore), she'd tried to go on without Liara and it hadn't worked... It was time to admit that they seemed to belong together after all and she wouldn't let her go this time..._

_"Did you enjoy the tour?"_

_. . ._

Liara opened her eyes. Hearing Shepard's even breathing beside her, she slowly turned, careful not to wake her, a smile spreading across her face at what she saw. Being actively involved in a joining – even if it was just to share memories – had obviously exhausted the commander... Liara propped her chin in the palm of her hand as she studied Shepard's face. She still remembered the feelings that face had started when she'd first seen it all those years ago on Therum. And two years later on Illium...

* * *

_"Have you faced an asari commando unit before? Few humans have. I'll make it simple. Either you pay me, or I flay you alive. With my mind." It was always the same... Why did she have to threaten people before they took her seriously? Liara sighed inwardly. She started to understand why her mother had been forced to become as ruthless as she'd always seemed..._

_Her contact's eyes widened at her words, but he remained silent, and hearing the hissing sound of the door behind her, Liara ended the call without another word. Maybe that would help emphasize her threat some more... _

_She spun around, a gasp escaping her as she recognized her visitor... "Shepard!"_

_It was her! It was really her! Liara had never believed all those various sources telling her that Shepard was back from the dead, not without seeing her with her own eyes... Even when she'd been informed that the Normandy SR-2 had docked on Illium, she'd paid the fees without allowing herself to get her hopes up. The days had passed and the Normandy had stayed docked, but no one had come to visit her in her office. She'd spent a lot more time than usual standing in front of her large office window, hoping the commander would walk past the market place right underneath her so that she could catch a glimpse of her to affirm that her racing heart had been right all along... She hadn't even read Miranda Lawson's encrypted message she'd received a few weeks ago, afraid it would inform her about the falseness of those reports and admitting that they hadn't been able to succeed, weren't able to keep their promise... But here she was... Standing in front of her... alive..._

_"Nyxeris, hold my calls," Liara ordered, hoping this way, she could at least make one person leave the room which seemed way too crowded all of a sudden... Her assistant bowed slightly and left the room without a word._

_Liara turned her attention back to her visitor, taking a few, cautious steps towards the only person her mind seemed to be able to acknowledge that moment... As soon as her fingers closed around Shepard's, a long forgotten feeling shot through her entire body and, forgetting her caution altogether, she closed the remaining distance, capturing Shepard's lips with her own, needing even more proof that the woman in front of her was Shepard. _Her_ Shepard..._

_Their lips touched and Liara was taken aback by the familiarity of that simple act. How was this possible? How could it feel like no time had passed at all? Like they'd simply been separated for a few hours? She felt a sharp pain shoot through her chest at her next thought. She'd seen Shepard's remains when she'd recovered her body, she'd seen the damage... How had they been able to put her back together? Making her look exactly like before... Making her feel exactly like before... Was Shepard still the same person? How could she be when everything else had changed?_

_Overwhelmed by her sudden confusion, Liara broke the kiss. She involuntarily shook her head, trying to make sense of all the feelings swirling through her entire being, but it didn't help. She turned away – even though her body immediately rebelled against it – and stepped in front of her large window overseeing Illium's hectic life outside. The sight had helped her calm many times before and it did so right now..._

_The sound of someone clearing their throat brought her back to reality immediately and Liara quickly spun around to face her visitors again, forcing a smile. "My sources said you were alive, but I never believed..." Her voice trailed off, her forced smile giving way to an honest one. "It's very good to see you."_

_It was her, there was no doubt about it. But as her eyes searched Shepard's, she realized that it was too late now. The moment was destroyed... Trying not to let her disappointment show on her face, Liara sighed inwardly. She shouldn't have broken the kiss..._

_The stern tone in Shepard's voice told Liara that her first and maybe only chance to go back to how things had been between them had passed as the commander sat down on the chair in front of her desk. "It's good to see you too, Liara. How are you doing?"_

* * *

Shepard swallowed once but didn't wake up. She slowly shifted in her sleep and a loose strand of hair fell into her face. Liara couldn't stop her hand from instinctively reaching out and brushing it aside, carefully tucking it behind Shepard's ear before her mind drifted off again...

* * *

_The door to her apartment closed behind her and she locked it before leaning heavily against the cool metal. Finally feeling safe (as safe as one could feel on Illium), she closed her eyes and let the mask she'd kept on for the rest of the day – after Shepard's visit – fall. Her heart immediately picked up its previous pace at the memory. She was alive! Shepard was back, she'd seen her with her own eyes, she'd touched her, and even through her gloves and Shepard's armor, she'd known it was her... And it had only taken the commander a few seconds to reawaken all those feelings Liara had buried deep within her. All those walls she'd built over the past two years, collapsing after one simple touch... The hard and stern exterior she'd been forced to develop due to her work as a ruthless information broker, melting away after one simple kiss..._

_She pushed herself off the door and carefully approached the most precious piece her apartment held. Touching the glass case softly, a smile spread across her face as she contemplated Shepard's armor displayed inside. She'd pictured their reunion so many times, but for it to feel so intense... She sighed, letting her hand drop. She knew what that meant... She wasn't the naive Prothean expert Shepard had fallen in love with two years ago anymore. Working as an information broker had, among many other things, taught her that being this vulnerable on Illium was dangerous. It could even cost her her life... And for Shepard to break through her defenses so easily... She couldn't afford it. Not now. She still had debts to pay. Shepard's life had come with a prize and as long as she hadn't fully paid it, Liara had to continue her work here on Illium..._

* * *

Shepard took a deep breath beside her and turned on her back, jolting Liara out of her memories once more. The fact that the commander still didn't wake up was a good sign, though. It meant that she, for once, wasn't plagued by nightmares... Liara let her eyes wander over Shepard's relaxed face, another smile tugging at her lips. Maybe they'd have to meld more often if it made Shepard sleep this peacefully...

Her eyebrow rose involuntarily. Or maybe not... Shepard seemed to have had her fair share of physical exercise already...

* * *

_As soon as Liara had entered her apartment, she put the datapad she'd received from Shepard down and sat on her terminal, setting up a link to Sekat, one of her more trusted contacts. During the conversation, her eyes narrowed as soon as she noticed the blinking icon at the edge of the monitor and she sighed inwardly. _Again?

_Ever since the first "encounter" Shepard had had with one of her crew members (which Liara had discovered by accident while monitoring Cerberus' data transfers), the asari had been informed about every future encounter, slowly starting to regret the programmed alert as endless hours of surveillance footage started piling up on her terminal, new material being added almost every other day..._

_She'd ignored the alerts for the past few days as soon as she'd heard that Shepard and her crew had leaped through the Omega-4 Relay, deciding it would be more important to monitor what little she could find about the progress of their mission (and hoping Shepard would be too occupied to engage in any other activities aside from killing Collectors for at least a while). But now that they were back and Shepard had decided to help her find the Shadow Broker, maybe it wouldn't hurt to be prepared for her next meeting with Shepard. In case there were any... lingering issues... _

_She sighed inwardly once more as she opened another window on her terminal during her conversation with Sekat, scanning the newly added content. Couldn't Cerberus populate the Normandy with less attractive and tempting personnel?_

_Just as she ended the call with Sekat and was about to open the first surveillance footage, she heard two silenced shots hitting the glass of one of her large windows and she immediately jumped off her chair. This would have to wait..._

* * *

Finally, Shepard stirred and opened her eyes, turning to Liara. The asari ran her hand through Shepard's hair, brushing another strand out of the commander's face. A smile spread across Shepard's face and she inched closer, nuzzling up against Liara and burying her head right under the asari's chin.

"Liara?"

Liara's eyebrow rose while she let her hand slide over Shepard's bare shoulder and down her arm, sighing. "Yes, Joker?"

"Have you seen Shepard this morning?"

Shepard shook her head weakly against Liara's neck and the asari's smile widened as she ran a hand through the tousled red hair once more, kissing the top of Shepard's head. "I'll see if I can find her," she answered, trying to sound as innocent as possible. "Is there a message you'd like me to deliver?"

"Yeah, could you tell her to stop wandering around the ship at night with her comm turned off? And for some strange reason, EDI's not able to track her either..."

Shepard raised her head, mouthing 'Thank you'. It definitely had its perks being in the Shadow Broker's lair... Liara smiled at her and nodded, mouthing 'You're welcome' as she brushed her hand over the commander's shoulder once more, enjoying the silky feeling of Shepard's skin underneath her fingertips.

"Oh, and we've reached the diplomatic ship in the Pranas system," Joker went on, making Liara sigh. Why couldn't he just leave them be? "Our guests are getting a little restless, they'd like to come aboard... I don't know how much longer the airlock door will hold if Wrex keeps banging at it..."

He was right... Now that they were silent, they could hear a muffled banging noise echoing through the Normandy... Shepard groaned, Liara's neck luckily muffling the sound.

"I'll see what I can do," Liara told the pilot and smiled as she watched Shepard crawl out of the bed to collect her clothes. As she noticed the commander turning her head from side to side in search, she reached behind her and tossed Shepard her black bra.

Shepard's eyebrow rose as she catched it mid-air, whispering (in case Joker hadn't turned the comm off just yet), "How did it end up _there_?"

Liara innocently shrugged her shoulders, causing Shepard's eyebrow to rise skeptically. "I hope you didn't intend on keeping my underwear as some kind of trophy, Dr. T'Soni..."

"No..." _Yes._

The commander looked down at the bundle of clothes in her hand, and seeing her eyes narrow, Liara pointed at the terminal behind Shepard, an amused smile on her face. The commander turned around and pulled her shirt off the terminal, almost pulling the monitor off the workstation in the process as well before she turned back to Liara, contemplating her findings so far once again...

"Socks?" she whispered and Liara pursed her lips in thought as she scanned her office. After a second, she raised both hands and shook her head.

Shepard nodded, her eyes narrowing as she tried to recall last night's events, all the while putting on her pants and bra. A sudden idea made her face light up and she dropped to her knees, rummaging under the bed before her head appeared over its edge again, her hand triumphantly holding a pair of black socks following swiftly. As she got back up, she casually tossed a datapad she'd found underneath the bed as well next to Liara, the asari's cheeks darkening immediately as she quickly grabbed it and stuffed it under her pillow. "What?" She shrugged as she noticed Shepard's raised eyebrow. "I was lonely... and you were grounded for six months..."

Shepard playfully shook her head. "I thought you didn't know what 'Vaenia' was..." she whispered back.

"I didn't." Liara averted her eyes. "Until Joker mentioned it..."

A smile spread across Shepard's face as she turned, adding over her shoulder, "Oh, and I couldn't reach the handcuffs from where I was kneeling, so I left them there for now..." She gave a short laugh. "Didn't even know you kept them..."

"Out!" the asari growled, pointing at the door.

"Before I find anything more?"

Evading a pillow coming from the bed, Shepard alternately balanced on her legs as she put on her socks while she made her way to the boots lying prominently in front of Glyph's upgrade terminal. The shirt was pulled over her head before she quickly ran a hand through her hair to straighten it somewhat. Once she'd reached the office door – ready to get back to duty – she turned around to suggestively wink at Liara one last time before being gently pushed out the now open door by the asari's biotics.

Smiling, Liara sank back into her (not thrown) pillow and sighed in contentment.

It was good to be back...

. . .

_Liara followed Miranda while the Normandy's XO showed her the ship. She'd expected to be greeted by Shepard, but the commander had, as soon as she'd spotted her, turned to her XO and whispered something in her ear before disappearing again. Since then, Miranda had taken it upon herself to show Liara every little space of the ship, introducing her to every crew member they came across..._

_Liara had barely paid attention as they'd walked through the ship, simply nodding and smiling from time to time when she'd deemed it appropriate... She wasn't here for the ship after all..._

_Finally, after she'd received a message on her omni-tool (turning her back on Liara to make sure the asari couldn't read it), Miranda had shoved her into the elevator, smiling at her encouragingly as she'd activated Shepard's cabin floor and then quickly exited the elevator before its doors had closed._

_The elevator started moving and Liara nervously straightened her dress before her eyes fell on the recovered dog tags in her hand. She closed both hands around it and impatiently waited for the elevator to reach its destination._

_It didn't take long... Soon enough, the doors hissed open and she was greeted by a small, empty hallway, only one door at its end. Taking one final deep breath as she approached it, the doors hissed open and she was greeted by Shepard's large cabin. She curiously let her eyes wander over the room as she passed the large aquarium near the entrance, a smile tugging at her lips. For some reason, she immediately felt welcome and comfortable here..._

_"Did you enjoy the tour?"_

_Her eyes fell on Shepard and she relaxed even more, the smile finally spreading across her face. Something seemed to fall into place after a very long time..._

_"Yes. It's a beautiful ship."_

* * *

_A/N: Ahem... I guess I don't have to say how sorry I am for the delay... I just haven't been in the mood to write (or rather rewrite those chapters) these last days/weeks... But thanks for your patience... if anyone's even still following this story, that is... ;) Maybe you should check in about a year from now, I might have another chapter ready by then... :)  
To the chapter: Phew, that was a monster to write... :) I hope it wasn't too confusing with all these memories. If you've got a question or anything's unclear: just tell me.  
This was actually one of the chapters I later squeezed into the story 'cause there was this one question that kept nagging me: Why would Liara take Shepard back? Or at least: why would she take my Shepard back. (You can't actually whore around that much in the real game... :) ) I still couldn't find an answer. I guess Liara's just way too nice...  
Oh, and one last thing: according to the ME-wiki: "Check and Mate" is 'a film about asari maidens at the World Chess Championship on Earth. It did very well in the box office due to the so called "Taetrus effect" that caused movie-goers to watch fewer action movies'. I thought that kinda fit Liara, plus she just needed an embarassing 'teenage'-memory like the rest of us... :)  
Next up: A dark rachni cave & Liara marks her territory (part 1)  
_


	4. Chapter 4

_A/N: I'm sorry, guys, I know it's been a long time and I still can't promise any faster updates. I'm still struggling with my writer's block and I just realized that all these earlier chapters of the story are kind of slow and not exactly how I want them to be but since my muse is gone I don't exactly know how to fix it. I'll try to change and fix as much as I can but I can't promise anything..._

_This project has become way bigger than I thought, which makes it harder to find the will to focus on, but we'll see how it goes...  
_

_Thanks to everyone who's still following it and to everyone who was reviewed.  
_

* * *

**"I still don't have a window like Liara does... but maybe that's because I don't kiss as well."**

Wrex' booming laughter rang out of the terminal's speakers and Liara involuntarily run her fingers over her lips. How could Wrex know if she was a great kisser... And more importantly: _was_ she a good kisser? She'd never asked...

"I don't know Wrex," Shepard's answer followed swiftly before Liara's self-doubt could completely settle in, "Guess there's only one way to find out... Life support has a window and as far as I know, no one has claimed the room so far..."

Liara's eyes widened in shock and her hands immediately shot back to her terminal to activate the surveillance camera in the War Room. A new window showed the room's interior and she spotted Shepard standing almost out of the camera's reach, obviously talking to Wrex who _was_ standing out of the camera's reach already... If Shepard would take only one more step forward... But she'd never do that... They would never... There had never been any sign of...

Before Liara's mind could torment her with even more horrifying images than it already had in those last two seconds, Primarch Victus' voice interrupted the laughter in the War Room and Shepard turned away from the krogan to approach him.

Relieved, Liara closed the surveillance feed again, taking a moment to brace her hands on either side of her terminal when a heavy sigh escaped her. That would have been a defeat hard to admit to anyone on the crew... _Left for a krogan battlemaster with amazing kissing-skills..._ Liara shuddered.

Even after having spent years around all these different aliens, there still were moments when Liara couldn't pick up the signals that indicated a joke – probably because she couldn't find any humor in most of their comments even if she tried... She had long since settled to simply smile politely but remaining silent, especially when it came to the krogan's questionable humor Shepard seemed to enjoy so much... A certain comment about the salarians' love for waterfalls back on Sur'Kesh came to mind which would have resulted in Shepard falling down the nearby stairs hadn't Liara reached out in time and grabbed the woman's arm, shooting nervous, apologetic glances at the unamused salarians around them while Shepard had buried her face in Liara's shoulder, trying to stifle her laughter as Wrex had went on with his insults...

Despite the embarrassment she'd felt at her squad's rude behavior – a feeling Liara unfortunately had learned to expect in almost every mission nowadays – being surrounded by so many familiar faces made her feel surprisingly comfortable. Or, as Garrus liked to call it, it felt like the "good old times"...

Liara smiled to herself while she went through the data they'd gathered on the planet. She wished they could have spent more time there. Not having an army of Reapers clouding the planet's sky was almost relaxing, except for the invading Cerberus troops, of course, but that was nothing the squad couldn't handle. And with all the reports coming in from Reaper-invaded planets, it felt good being able to face an enemy they _could_ take on for a change...

She was jolted out of her thoughts when she heard the door to her office hiss open, followed by a familiar sigh. She smiled and turned towards the approaching commander.

"Hard day?" she asked, affectionately rubbing Shepard's back as the commander leaned against her.

"They're behaving like children," Shepard sighed. "They both need my help, but Victus doesn't want to talk in front of Wrex, Wrex doesn't want to talk in front of Victus... Ugh." She ran a hand through her hair. "I need something to shoot!"

"We just came back from Sur'Kesh..."

"Yeah..." Shepard smiled at the memory. "Do you think I could have kept a varren?"

Liara's eyebrow rose. "From the ones we saw? Definitely not!" she declared, remembering the remains of all those attacked Cerberus Troopers covering the room with the empty varren cells they'd passed.

Shepard shrugged. "You're probably right..." She sighed. "Oh well, maybe I'll get a rachni to keep on our next mission..."

Liara's head shot up. "A _what?_"

Nuzzling the asari's neck one last time, Shepard smiled against the warm skin before she pulled away, straightening up. "Oh, did I forget to mention? That's our next mission... We're heading to the Attican Traverse. Wrex heard rumors about a rachni relay there..." She turned back to the door. "Just wanted to tell you... You know, if you want to join us..." She stopped mid-way. "In fact, I could use you to keep my moral compass in check, 'cause I swear, if it turns out I let that rachni back on Noveria go just so she could get herself captured again..." Shepard inhaled sharply. "I might need someone to stop me from killing her this time..." Her expression immediately softened again and she added over her shoulder, "Oh, but shhh... Don't tell Victus about it..."

Liara sighed. Investigating rachni rumors... what could possibly go wrong?

. . .

"Shepard! You in one piece?"

At Grunt's booming voice coming from a distance, Liara's eyes shot open and, after blinking a few times, she was able to see through the dust around her to scan her surroundings.

She was lying on a cold wall of the crashed building structure, the coldness of the ground underneath her combined with the relatively fresh air coming from the open door only a few feet away helping her senses to kick back in quickly. As soon as they did, images of the past minutes started shooting through her head...

She remembered Shepard's smile when she'd spotted her old squad mate as soon as their shuttle had set down on Utukku as well as the wary look Liara herself had given the tank-bred krogan just before following Shepard into the nearby building. She remembered the careful steps she'd taken into the building, deciding it would be wise if at least one of the squad would look out for hidden dangers instead of rushing into unknown – and probably unstable – territory. As if he'd sensed her thoughts, James' heavy footsteps next to her had made her turn her head and she'd been about to tell the brute to stop stomping on a ground that seemed to be awfully unstable when the building had suddenly started shaking and slowly but steadily had slid off the cliff it had been standing – or rather hanging, as Liara had sighingly decided – on.

_"Look out! The whole thing's coming down! Get back!"_

Accompanied by Grunt's late warning from outside, the first tremor had sent Liara flying sideways against nearby crates that had been piled up in the front of the building's wall to her left. She had raised her head after the impact and seen Shepard struggling to keep her balance near an open door in the ajoining room, but before she had been able to use her biotics to shield them, she'd felt James' heavy body crash into her as the building had tremored again, this time fully sliding off the cliff.

Their fall had been violently stopped as they had landed on jutting rocks near the ground that now seemed to hold the demolished building in place.

Liara groaned as she pushed the heavy body off of her – silently hoping that later on, James' body would hurt as much as hers did now – and crawled out of the container. The dust settled quickly and Liara spotted Shepard getting up only a couple of feets away. The commander smiled and winked at her before she turned away to contact Grunt.

"Looks like we're all okay. Keep in radio contact," she ordered while approaching a tunnel entrance ahead of them.

Liara heard some shuffling behind her and before she had time to turn around, James – who, to Liara's great disappointment, didn't seem to have a single scratch on him – had already hurried past her and after Shepard, ignoring the unamused glare the asari shot him as he passed.

_You're welcome..._

* * *

James looked back over his shoulder. The Doc was still at a distance, dusting off her clothes and stretching her – judging by her pained expression – hurting back. This was his chance...

He turned to Shepard who was kneeling next to a dead krogan scout, inspecting the discarded weapon lying next to him.

"Erm, Commander..."

"Hmmmm?" Shepard didn't take her eyes off the weapon she'd picked up while she was turning it from side to side in her hands, eyeing it curiously.

James shot another short glance over his shoulder before he cleared his throat.

"If you ever want to... you know..."

Shepard got back up, the weapon still in her hands, and raised her head to look at him, her expression showing honest confusion. Her eyes narrowed. "To what?"

"Ah, don't play coy..." A confident smile spread across the marine's face as he lightly punched her in the arm. "I saw the looks you've given me..." And seeing Shepard's raised eyebrow, he quickly added, "Hey, no need to be shy about it, I get them a lot. It's only natural..."

"Huh..." Shepard nodded absent-mindedly, her brows furrowing while she studied the man beaming with pride in front of her. What was he talking about?

James finally gestured towards his body as if presenting it to her and Shepard's eyes suddenly widened as realization hit her. "Oh!"

"Yeah." James nodded, his smile widening but quickly faltering when Shepard started to laugh. Upon seeing his confused expression, she quickly bit her lower lip to collect herself before she nodded towards the approaching asari behind him.

"Erm, thanks but... I already have someone to ogle..." _And I'm pretty sure it couldn't have been more than one time that my eyes _may_ have accidentally wandered in your direction while working out, thank you..._

"Oh." Now it was James' turn to look surprised. "You and her, huh..." He shot another glance over his shoulder and rubbed the nape of his neck, averting his eyes when he muttered, "Sorry I almost killed her back on Mars..."

"Yeah." Shepard gave a short laugh, patting him lightly on the shoulder. "I might have been forced to smash your head against the nearest wall if you had..." she stated, still laughing, but the expression in her eyes telling him that she, in fact, wasn't joking.

"Anyway..." Shepard's eyes were back on the weapon in her hand while she fired a few test flame bursts with her new Firestorm before she smiled at James once more. "Thanks for the offer, but I think I'm fine..."

"Sure." James took a step back, nodding. "I just meant... you know... if you ever... Actually, if you _two_ ever-"

Shepard held her hand up, the Firestorm now dangerously close to his face. "_Don't_ even finish that sentence!"

James raised his hands in a defensive gesture. "Just saying. You know where to find me..." he offered lamely, his voice getting quieter the closer Liara came.

"Yeah, I got that." Shepard smiled at Liara who'd just reached them, skeptically looking back and forth between her two companions. Why was James evading her eyes?

The commander nodded towards the tunnel entrance. "Shall we?"

She turned and Liara quickly followed her, shooting another suspicious glance at James. While she didn't know what they'd been talking about until she'd joined them, there were more pressing matters at the time and she figured it might be a good idea to stay close to Shepard from now on... And raising her head to see what was blocking the tunnel entrance ahead, she shuddered and decided that might be a _very _good idea... "Is that webbing?"

Liara jumped slightly as a flameburst shot past her. "Looks like it," Shepard answered while she waited for the flames to consume the rest of the webbing in front of them before jumping down a now visible ledge.

_Oh goddess... _Liara gave one last look around before she followed Shepard down into the tunnels, immediately turning on her weapon's flashlights and scanning their surroundings frantically. Even though she was used to closed spaces from her time as an archeologist, the one thing she had never completely gotten used to was the darkness she'd always encountered...

"Stay close, it's easy to get separated," she warned while following her own advise and staying as close to Shepard as possible, fighting the urge to grab her hand.

"Agreed. Everybody be ready."

The small group made their way deeper into the caves, the light from their flashlights dancing along the rock surrounding them until all three flashlight beams aimed at a small figure scurrying over the ground in front of them. Liara jumped once more. "Did anyone see that?" she asked while involuntarily grabbing Shepard's arm. The commander turned and smiled at her reassuringly while patting the asari's hand.

"Ah, don't worry. If necessary, just stomp them..."

James' short laugh indicated his approval, but Liara shook her head in disbelief. "I don't stomp things!" she muttered, trying to keep her voice low as not to alert any more of those... things...

"As you say... In that case just stay close and let _me_ do the stomping." Shepard grinned and turned back to the way ahead of them, her flashlight beam illuminating a group of egg-like objects ahead of them.

"What are those?" Liara whispered, jumping yet again when she felt something graze her leg. _Goddess, let this be over soon..._

"I don't know." Shepard approached the spore pods slowly but was held back by Liara.

"Careful where you st-" the asari warned but was cut off by the loud sound of flames quickly consuming the pods in front of them. Shepard shot her a questioning look, shrugging her shoulders lightly.

_Of course... _Liara sighed and let go of Shepard's arm._ Just kill it..._

The pods quickly turned black under the constant heat, but then suddenly burst, showering both Shepard and Liara with its slimy content. Narrowing her eyes, Liara crossed her arms in front of her chest, tilting her head slightly while she expectantly – and somewhat reproachfully – watched Shepard looking down at herself.

The commander grimaced. "Eww..."

* * *

"Watch your steps."

Liara grimaced as she tried to get rid of the mixture of slimy substances from exploded swarmer pods and dirt from her jump during the cave in only a couple of minutes ago, followed by a few _minor_ fights against husks, swarmers, ravagers... She sighed. That would leave stains...

She looked up and saw Shepard jump over a gap in front of them, turning around and motioning them to follow.

"Got it," she whispered, quickly scanning the area around them to see if her voice had alarmed any more enemies. As not even James' whispered "Yup" seemed to have alerted any more monstrosities, she tightening the grip on her pistol and followed Shepard, who catched her at the other side of the, admittedly small, gap and pulled her close – not that she would complain about that, of course...

"Why are you whispering?" Shepard whispered in her ear.

Liara raised both her eyebrows and pointed at her ruined outfit.

"Oh..." Shepard nodded and, after a quick look around, added, "I'm sure we're safe for the moment..."

A high-pitched scream made Liara jump and grab Shepard's arm once more as they both turned their heads from side to side, searching for the scream's origin until their eyes finally fell on their companion... Behind them, James scuttled around the remaining, intact pods, desperately trying not to touch any of them which resulted in a surprisingly endearing display of grace neither thought the soldier possessed.

"Moving on," Shepard whispered and pulled Liara with her, her arm still protectively draped around the asari's midsection just as James jumped over the gap, proudly looking around in hopes of applause for his accomplishment, but receiving none.

Liara leaned closer to Shepard. "Do you think that was..."

"Don't be mean, Liara..." Shepard whispered back, but still couldn't hide her smile.

* * *

"So, Doc..."

Liara slightly turned her head while they were walking. Due to their previous fights the marine seemed to have come to the conclusion that whispering was no longer necessary, since they'd surely encounter new enemies soon enough, whether he was talking in his normal voice or not... However, he seemed to deliberately keep his voice low enough for only Liara to hear, shooting glances at Shepard who was pacing a few feet ahead of them...

James raised a suggestive eyebrow when he went on, "You top or bottom?" Seeing Liara's perplexed expression, he quickly added, "That's how you call it, right?"

Liara's brows furrowed in confusion and she stopped for a moment, contemplating the soldier's words. "I... do not understand..."

James nodded in thought. "You're right, that's pretty obvious..." His face lit up. "Ever thought about switching roles?"

"Switching...?"

_What_ was he talking about? Liara's confusion only grew when James added, "You know... being in charge... in command..."

_Oh..._ Now it seemed to make sense... Even though the moment he had chosen for such questions was a bit... inconvenient – given that they were still making their way through dark tunnels and caves with the risk of being attacked by a wave of new enemies at any second – Liara decided to answer regardless and she shook her head vehemently.

"Of course not. I have the deepest respect for her as our Commander, why would I want to undermine her authority?"

Jame's laughter confused Liara even more but before she could open her mouth again, Shepard's head appeared behind a rock.

"Guys, when you're done with your little chit chat, I could _really_ use your help over here... I've ran out of ammo for the Firestorm and there are still lots of unfriendly occupants in this cave..."

As if on cue, the growling sounds of what must be at least a dozen husks finally reached Liara's ears and her eyes immediately widened as she rushed forward to help Shepard.

James, on the other hand, couldn't resist a suggestive grin as he reached for his gun to follow the two women.

"Aye, _Commander_..."

. . .

_"Turians are nuts. A civilization of war nerds. Loyal viewers, but they write the creepiest fan mail. I wonder if Shepard gets them too..."_

_"Oh, I bet she gets fan mail all the time... She's gorgeous! And she smells really good. We both leaned against my work station the other day and she was so close to me in that tight uniform..."_ Samantha sighed. _"Do you think she's seeing someone right now?"_

_"As far as I know, she and Dr. T'Soni are... quite close..."_ came Diana's response.

Liara closed a window showing the progress on the Crucible on her terminal and turned up the volume of the conversation between the Comm Specialist and the reporter she'd been listening in on while working.

They had all safely returned from their mission on Utukku and Liara had even managed to convince Shepard not to kill the Rachni queen – which had required a lot more persuasion than the first time on Noveria...

After a quick glance at the momentary state their clothes were in, the group had quickly split up, everyone heading for a shower and a change of clothes – except for Grunt who seemed to be determined to show the blood of his enemies he was wearing proudly like a medal to everyone on the Normandy, but judging by the fact that the screaming had stopped by now, he'd obviously accomplished his mission and left the ship...

With new, fresh clothes Liara had resumed the work on her terminal when she had stumbled upon a programmed alert informing her that there was a conversation aboard the ship she might be interested in...

_"I don't know... They've known each other for years. They could just be good friends. Like her and Garrus..."_

Liara's fingers slipped off the keyboard, almost authorizing to spend a high amount of resources on teaching pyjaks how to disable proximity mines... She quickly deleted the command and instead sent a ship with sixteen tons of platinum for the Crucible's primary trigger inlay.

_"Do you think she likes chess?"_

"That creepy guy is back," Shepard's voice stated from behind her and Liara slightly jumped at her unexpected visitor.

Strange, she didn't even hear the door open...

Liara quickly shut down her terminal and turned towards the commander. "What creepy guy?"

Shepard gave a suspicious look over her shoulder before the doors fully closed and then turned back to Liara.

"That weird guy outside... I could have sworn I saw him in the CIC yesterday and now he's back down here, just... walking around, saluting me whenever he sees me... What's he even doing out there?"

A smile spread across Liara's face. "Commander, are you getting paranoid?"

Shepard's head shot up. "Who, me? No..." Her eyes narrowed. "I just don't trust him..."

"Well..." Liara started approaching Shepard slowly. "In that case I could do a background check on him to ease your mind." She trailed a finger down Shepard's uniform. "_If_ you ask nicely..." she whispered in her ear. Hearing Shepard swallow, she leaned back slightly, a smile on her face. "Was there something else I can help you with, Commander?"

Shepard nervously ran a hand through her hair. "I..." Liara's eyebrow rose expectantly. "I have completely forgotten what I came here for," Shepard admitted, her voice shaking just a little bit.

Liara circled Shepard, her hand tracing Shepard's shoulders. "Hm... Since you're already here..." she mused and Shepard felt herself being gently pushed towards Liara's bed – and since her mind had went blank a couple of minutes ago anyway, she simply obliged.

Liara smiled mischievously. It seemed she'd have to start marking her territory...

* * *

"I heard our Comm Specialist has taken a certain... interest in you..."

"Are you jealous?" Shepard turned her head to look at Liara who was lying next to her, but the asari simply shrugged her shoulders.

"No. I already know you're not interested in her," she stated matter-of-factly.

Shepard challengingly raised an eyebrow. "Oh? And how would you know _that_?"

"I saw it during our meld..."

"You were in my head?" Shepard gasped mockingly while placing a hand to her chest. "Dr. T'Soni..."

Liara shook her head, smiling. "I can't see anything you don't want me to see..." She placed a hand on Shepard's stomach. "And I know your feelings are sincere. I'd know it if they weren't..." And while contemplating the biotics swirling around her hand, she added, "I would have thrown you out of the bed long ago otherwise..."

Shepard sighed. "You mean you'll never get jealous again?"

Liara smiled. "Your admirers can still get _very _annoying from time to time..." She turned back to Shepard, letting her biotics slowly flicker over the commander's body, causing her to shiver. "But I'm sure _that's_ something Samantha can't do..."


	5. Chapter 5

**"It's one thing to hear about Commander Shepard... It's another to see her in action."**

* * *

_Diana Allers: Speaking of action... Did you see her neck this morning?_

_Samantha Traynor: No. Why? I was too distracted by her gorgeous smile..._

Liara's grip on the datapad tightened. She took a deep breath and let her eyes wander over the Presidium's gardens for a minute to wait for her anger to pass. From her spot at an empty table near _Apollo's café_, she had the perfect view over the seemingly peaceful space station that seemed so oblivious to everything that happened in the galaxy around it...

As soon as Shepard had found her voice again the night before, she'd also remembered that the reason she'd visited Liara in the first place had been to tell her to take some time off the Normandy as soon as they docked on the Citadel. And since Liara was sure Shepard would have kept nagging her until she'd left her office, she'd obliged, and so, here she sat... Admittedly not entirely work-free since she would have felt useless without at least some data to occupy her mind with, but since dragging all her monitors and Glyph to the Presidium Commons was out of the question, she had settled for a copy of this morning's conversation between Samantha and Diana on a datapad. But so far, the results of her efforts last night were less than pleasing... She sighed before turning her attention back to the datapad.

_DA: A huge grin more likely..._

_ST: She's just a happy person... But since you don't seem to want her..._

_DA: Wait, is that a challenge?_

_ST: It's not. I'm simply pleased to see that I've got less competition than expected..._

_DA: Oh, it's on..._

Liara started rubbing her temples in irritation. She wasn't as accustomed to human courtship behavior as she now wished she were, but by the Goddess... didn't they know when to stop? She decided to search the extranet some more when she got back to her office for more efficient ways to signal both Samantha and Diana that Shepard was already 'taken' when she heard a familiar voice behind her.

"Still working?"

She looked up and quickly turned off the datapad in her hand as Shepard approached her, sitting down on a free chair by her table.

"Nothing I can't put on hold." She smiled while inconspicuously storing the datapad back in her labcoat.

If she'd noticed, Shepard didn't let it show on her face and instead placed a hand on Liara's. "That's not why I sent you here, you know..."

Liara sighed. "I know."

"We'll take care of whatever you've been working on as soon as we get back, don't worry..."

Liara's eyebrow rose involuntarily. _Oh you have no idea..._

Nodding smilingly, she got up from her chair and leaned against the nearby railing, letting her eyes wander over the lakes and green spaces in front of her in thought. It didn't take long for her to feel Shepard's presence behind her and she felt the commander run a hand down Liara's back, making her close her eyes at the soothing effect that simple gesture had. She sighed involuntarily.

"Take a moment for yourself now and then."

"I know. I know. But there's always just one more task or meeting." _Or information to dig up on two certain individuals in case I ever need leverage..._ She finally turned and leaned her back against the railing, Shepard leaning next to her.

"Speaking of which..." Shepard leaned in closer, nodding towards _Apollo's café_. "The bartender over there?" she started, lowering her voice.

Liara lazily turned her head towards the bar. "The matriarch hired by the asari government to track my movements?" she asked calmly, already knowing what would come next...

The commander paused momentarily, but then still continued, smiling, "She's your father!" She raised an expectant eyebrow as she waited for Liara's expression to change, maybe even a little shocked gasp...

But Liara simply shifted her weight to her left arm on the railing, leaning closer to Shepard as she looked into the commander's sparkling eyes and answered, "I know."

Now it was Shepard's expression that changed. "You know?" She shook her head in defeat. "I never get to surprise you with anything!"

Liara couldn't help but smile. "I'm a _very_ good information broker," she stated while leniently patting Shepard's arm.

"And you haven't talked to her about spying on you?"

Liara's expression turned serious. "If I did that, they might send someone who wasn't as sympathetic to me..." She leaned back, turning her head aside. "Besides, this is hardly the time for family reunions."

Shepard's eyes softened, as did her voice, "Liara..."

Trying to ignore the flutter in her stomach at Shepard's tone to ensure the commander didn't learn about the power she momentarily held (not to mention the power she would have over her in the future whenever using that tone again), she sighed and pushed herself off the railing. "Oh, fine."

Shepard's eyes followed Liara as the asari approached the nearby bar where her father quickly turned, feigning to scrub the bar's surface with a towel she'd just grabbed from her co-worker. A smile started tugging at the corner of Shepard's mouth as she sat down on the table Liara had occupied not long ago and leaned back in her chair, pleased with her achievement. She couldn't save _everyone_ in the galaxy and she certainly couldn't reunite _all_ families, but ever since the death of Liara's mother (which she, for the most part, had been responsible for), Shepard had always hoped to be able to give Liara at least some closure about her family.

Smiling smugly, she placed her feet on the table while letting her eyes wander over the beautiful view of the Citadel in front of her.

_'You mean you're her other mother, right?'_

_'No. I didn't pop her out.'_

Shepard paused as Matriarch Aethyta's voice ran through her head...

_'Sorry, if you were human, you'd both be called the mother, regardless of which one gave birth.'_

_'Well, I'm not human, am I? Anthropocentric bag of dicks.'_

The human flung her feet off the table and stormed towards the bar. This conversation, she _had_ to hear...

* * *

"It was pretty clear she was leaving. Can't be the wise councilor when you're married..."

"Why not?"

"Sex appeal," Aethyta stated, immediately making Liara wish she hadn't asked... "Most species only pay attention if they want to have sex with you... So you have to be available, mysterious..."

"What? That's not true!" Liara chimed in. "Shepard listens to me!"

Aethyta gave a short laugh. "And how many times have you thrown her on the bed and peeled her out of her uniform?"

They both turned their heads as they heard a snort from the other end of the bar.

"Don't mind me..." Shepard raised her glass and toasted them, grinning widely.

Liara lowered her head, feeling a heat rising up her cheeks as she intently stared at the gleaming blue of the bar before murmuring, "Do you have to make it sound so... tawdry?"

"If it's all civilized, you're not doing it right," came her father's unimpressed answer.

The sudden lack of argument made Aethyta turn to her daughter and, following the line of Liara's self-conscious sight, she placed a hand on her hip and turned to Shepard, her eyebrows raised expectantly.

When she felt even the human bartender's eyes on her, Shepard cleared her throat, pointing at her empty glass while croaking, "Can I get another one?"

* * *

"Even used her biotics during it?"

Shepard nodded before she emptied the glass in her hand and placed it back on the bar, grinning at Aethyta who whistled in approval. "You bet she did..."

Aethyta gave a short laugh, refilling her own glass. "Glad to hear it... For a moment there I feared you wouldn't have it in you, kid..." She paused and instead of lifting the now filled glass, she suddenly pushed it towards her daughter, grinning encouragingly.

Oblivious to her father's gesture, Liara's fingers nervously drummed on the bar. For the last twenty minutes, the young asari had been trying to make some sense of the conversation that had taken place before her, but the fact that both Aethyta and Shepard had used words and terms Liara herself had never even heard of before made that almost impossible... The only thing she could rely on was her instinct that told her to be embarassed, which was accompanied by a deep blush covering her cheeks while she prayed for this conversation to end...

Seeing that her daughter hadn't noticed the offered drink, Aethyta shrugged and downed it herself. "Well, I've just cleaned the bar, but I'd make an exception if you two want to-"

"Nah, we're good." Shepard quickly interrupted her, waving her hand dismissively. She looked up and noticed Aethyta's suspicious glare, quickly adding, "I mean I'll take your daughter to my quarters _right now_ and ravish her until her voice is hoarse from screaming my name and she won't be able to sit for at least a week..."

Aethyta smilingly spread her arms, obviously pleased with the answer. "Hey, don't let me keep you..."

"Right..." Shepard turned to Liara and quickly grabbed her arm, pulling her away from the bar.

"Don't forget my advice with the spoon..."

"Never!"

"Ah, young love..." Aethyta grinned as she started scrubbing the bar, her proud eyes still on the retreating couple.

* * *

Liara shot a quick glance over her shoulder to see her father wave smilingly. She forced a smile and raised her hand shyly before turning away and leaning closer to the woman next to her. "Shepard, what in the world were you two talking about?"

Shepard shrugged. "Nothing important... I just got her off your back for a while..."

"But we've never..."

The commander lightly patted the asari's hand. "I know..."

"And you're not going to..."

"Nah, don't worry..."

Liara bit her lip in thought. "Shepard, if there's anything you'd like to try..." she whispered, but stopped as she noticed Shepard's surprised expression.

The human grinningly shook her head, tightening her hold on Liara's hand while they walked towards the elevator. "Don't worry, I think my interest in new experiences has vanished after that hanar a few years ago..."

Liara's grip immediately tightened and her head whipped around, eyes wide in surprise. "A _hanar_?"

"Ugh, please don't ask..." the redhead shuddered. "Never again!"

. . .

"Hey Commander. Rough night?"

Shepard stopped and took her eyes off the quickly retreating asari's back. She turned towards the pilot leaning out of his seat, grinning at her mischievously, and her eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Why do you ask?"

Joker's grin widened and he pointedly looked at Shepard's neck. The commander carefully raised her hand and grimaced as she felt a slight sting at the touch, knowing exactly what that meant... _How did I not see that?_

"Ah crap, how long has it been there?" she whined, throwing her arms up. "Ugh, does that mean I've been walking around the Citadel like that the entire day?" She fumbled at the collar of her uniform, desperately trying to pull it over the hickey.

Joker shrugged his shoulders. "Well, I guess we'll find out soon enough." He turned to his co-pilot. "EDI, could you monitor the Citadel's extranet gossip sites for me?"

"Acknowledged."

Shepard's eyes narrowed once more as she pointed her finger at the two. "Don't. You. Dare!" she threatened and turned on her heels, trying to hide her blush as she hurried through the CIC and to the elevator.

* * *

Liara's eyes narrowed. No matter how much she searched, she couldn't find any information about the hanar Shepard had mentioned. There were no records about Shepard ever talking to a hanar aside from a three year old complaint filed by a hanar accusing Shepard of calling him a "big stupid jellyfish" – which, knowing Shepard, meant she could rule him out... She pursed her lips. They had encountered a hanar in a shop on Noveria three years ago and then there was the hanar diplomat with his mistress on the Citadel Shepard had told her about, but other than that...

"Busy?" Shepard leaned against some crates near Liara's terminal.

The asari hurriedly closed her terminal and turned to the other woman while forcing an innocent smile. "I have time if you'd like to talk. In fact, I could use the distraction."

"What's on your mind?"

_Think of something... _Liara's frantic eyes fell on a book on Prothean history on her nightstand and a smirk started forming on her lips."How long it took the Reapers to eradicate the Protheans, and how long they'll need for us," she announced with her most convincing serious expression, her eyes still on the book. Satisfied by her quick improvisation, she nodded. She could already feel the scientist in her taking over...

An amused smile on her face, Shepard sat down on the chair Liara had just abandoned as she watched the asari pace around the room, gesticulating wildly in her explanation.

"It's selfish, but I keep thinking that if we fail..." Liara sighed and stopped in front of her monitors. "I'm only 109, Shepard. I could live to see the entire cycle come to an end."

"Only 109, huh?"

Shepard's remark immediately jolted Liara out of her monologue. She turned her head and, seeing the commander's smile, responded in kind. "I know." She brushed a hand over her forehead, slightly ashamed. "It must seem strange to complain about a thousand year life span." Her voice took on a regretful tone at her next words, "I used to think it was sad that most aliens lived such short lives. Maybe it's not such a privilege to outlive so many... To witness so much death."

"Don't drive yourself crazy about this, Liara." Shepard leaned forward in her chair as if to emphasize her next words. "We're still in the fight."

"Only because you're still driving it forward," Liara stated. "We finally have other leaders on our side, but none will take us as far as you can." She approached the commander still sitting in her chair, stopping only a few feet away and placing a hand on her hip. A smile immediately started tugging at the corner of her mouth when she noticed the approving look Shepard gave her, obviously a bit distracted by the sight in front of her... It still made her nervous to know that she was the reason for Shepard's warm smiles... _and_ gleaming eyes... Nervously, she cleared her throat. Where was she, again? Oh, right... "Sometimes I wonder how you do it."

Another smile spread across Shepard's face. Clearly she couldn't have been _that_ good at hiding her feelings... She leaned back in her chair, raising a challenging eyebrow. "Every time the world's about to end, I think about how mad you'd get if I didn't stop it." Liara gave a short laugh but took Shepard's offered hand and the commander pulled her on her lap. "I don't know if I could do this without you," she whispered in Liara's neck, planting a gentle kiss there.

"Flatterer." Liara smiled and ran a hand through the commander's hair.

"I try," came Shepard's muffled answer.

Despite Shepard's lips on her neck, a sad sigh still managed to escape Liara and the commander's head rose immediately. "We still have time, Liara," she soothed as she noticed the other's expression. "I don't know what's gonna happen and I don't know how much time we have left, but we still _have_ time. And I plan on spending all I have left with you and enjoying it instead of dwelling on our uncertain future. We've come this far already..."

Liara nodded, turning her head away to hide her concerned expression, but Shepard sensed it regardless. Sighing, she tightened her hold on Liara's waist and rested her head on the asari's shoulder, whispering, "You know, there are times when I'm not sure if we'll make it, if what we do even has any meaning at all, but in these times all it takes is one look at you and I realize I at least want to try and make it through this all..." Placing a kiss on Liara's clothed shoulder, Shepard added, "You're my home, Liara. Not my cabin, not the Normandy, you are." A mischievous smirk played around the commander's lips at her next words. "Why do you think I keep dragging you along for every single miss-" She was cut off as blue, insistent lips pressed against hers, the blue beauty in her lap turning until she was straddling the human's lap.

"And thus successfully keep me from my work here," Liara added breathlessly before closing the short gap between them again.

"M-hm... that too..." Shepard's lips formed into a smile against Liara's and she tightened her grip on the asari to secure her on the, admittedly, limited space the chair they were momentarily occupying offered.

One of Shepard's hands started trailing lazy circles along Liara's back and she murmured, "So... about that distraction..."

Liara leaned back slightly, raising a challenging eyebrow while lovingly running her hand up and down Shepard's right arm. "Commander, did you just say all these things to get me to jump into bed with you?"

A mischievous smirk spread across Shepard's face at that and she winked playfully before starting to tug at Liara's labcoat. "If you could just kindly keep your teeth off my neck this time..."

"You mean _this_ neck?"

"Never mind!"

* * *

_A/N: And we're finally getting closer to the more theme-based chapters. Not there yet, but we're getting there, don't worry... Just gotta get some more of those mixed chapters out of the way... :)_

_Next up: The CIC-incident a.k.a. It was Garrus' idea... _


	6. Chapter 6

**"You sweat playing chess?"**

**.  
**

Shepard's eyebrow rose.

As did Liara's as the elevator doors hissed open, showing Shepard casually leaning against Samantha's terminal. The asari took a deep breath before stepping into the CIC with new determination.

Samantha turned to Shepard, a playful smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "Depends on how much fun we're having..." she answered suggestively.

This was it... It needed to be done! Liara swallowed once before she set her eyes on her target and quickly approached the Comm Specialist's terminal. Shepard spotted her first and a smile immediately spread across the commander's face. Sensing that something was about to happen, Samantha turned her head just seconds later to see the approaching asari as well. She quickly turned to face her fully, but Liara simply passed her by without taking her eyes off of Shepard, taking the commander's face in both hands as soon as she'd reached her and crashing her lips against Shepard's.

The CIC immediately went silent.

Not caring about the dozens of curious eyes locked on them at that moment, Shepard's surprise quickly vanished and she smiled against the soft, blue lips before gripping the asari's waist and pulling her close. With a sigh, Liara's hand found its way into the commander's silky hair and her nails lightly scraped along Shepard's scalp as she lost herself in the familiar sensations exploding throughout her entire body. A warm tongue slowly darted out to trace her bottom lip and Liara was more than willing to grant it entrance and deepen the kiss-

-until the sound of someone's boots shuffling across the floor brought her back to reality immediately. Her face still slightly flustered, Liara pulled back and her wide eyes locked on Shepard's gleaming ones. Just as Shepard was about to reach out and pull the asari back for another kiss, Liara's eyes widened even more at the realization of what she'd just done and, surprised by her own boldness, she spun on her heels without another word. Already feeling her cheeks starting to burn as she passed Samantha – whose mouth hung open – Liara kept her head low and stormed back into the elevator, not daring to turn around until its doors were entirely closed behind her.

_Goddess..._ She sighed and rested her burning cheeks on the cool elevator wall.

. . .

"Liara?"

Garrus carefully stepped into Liara's office, noticing her sitting at her terminal. Her head spun around at his voice and she pointed an accusing finger at him but he immediately held up his hands – both of them holding a bottle – before she could even get a chance to open her mouth.

"You're coming with me!" he ordered, securing both bottles against his chest with one hand and pulling her up with his other, now free, hand.

"Garrus, I-"

"No excuses, T'Soni..."

Garrus led her straight to the newly decorated Port Observation Deck and Liara turned her head in awe as she took in the room she'd never entered before, what with all her work and... her lacking need to socialize with certain members of Shepard's crew that did seem to spend an awful lot of time in here... But to her great relief, James seemed to have found something else to occupy his time with at the moment.

So she allowed herself to relax and sat down on the, admittedly very comfortable, couch, leaning back and crossing her legs while Garrus placed both bottles on the table and approached the nearby bar to get glasses for them. "Found a stash of Serrice Ice Brandy in here a while ago... I just hope Karin doesn't keep count..." He turned and approached her with a turian equivalent of a smile. "So... I heard about your... incident in the CIC..."

Liara buried her head in her hands and groaned.

"Now, now..." Garrus sat down on the couch next to her, patting her shoulder with one hand while pouring her a glass of the asari brandy with the other. "Did it work?" He offered her the glass.

Liara took a careful sip and grimaced as the strong liquor ran down her throat. She sighed – as soon as the burning sensation in her throat had somewhat settled – and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I'm afraid not. And I certainly don't feel like I've improved my species' image with it..." She turned her head to her friend, seeking advice – or at least some sort of comfort in her misery.

Garrus gave a short laugh and shrugged his shoulders after he'd downed the turian brandy in his own glass. "Well, it worked for me and Tali..."

"You and Tali?" Liara's brows furrowed. She must have been too busy monitoring Shepard's activities over the last years to notice her two best friends' feelings towards each other... She'd have to catch up on that as soon as she was back in her cabin...

Garrus' voice jolted her out of her musing. "Well, I didn't kiss her in front of _everyone_, of course..." he started, earning Liara's outstretched finger once again accusingly pointing at him.

"But _you_ told me to do that!" She took another sip from her glass, learning that the liquor still burned as strongly as before... "I should have never listened to you," she murmured.

"It _could_ have worked..." he offered, pouring himself another drink. And with twitching mandibles, he added, "I'm sure Shepard liked it..."

Liara groaned again, deciding to do her research on her own again from now on. A sudden idea made her sit upright again. "And how exactly did your plan to... 'mark your territory' work out when no one else was around when you kissed Tali?" she asked, her eyes narrowing in suspicion at the thought that Garrus had simply given her his advice to provide Joker with new video material... Maybe he'd just lost a bet to the pilot... you never knew with these two...

"Oh, I didn't say _no one_ was around..." Garrus corrected, downing another glass before his eyes narrowed and he leaned closer to her. "I'm sure Donnelly got the message..." His eyes light up again. "But enough about me." Her friend leaned back into the couch again, eyeing her curiously. "What were you doing before we met up here?"

"Oh, you know. This and that." Liara shrugged her shoulders while innocently brushing some invisible dust off her knee.

"Come on. Spill it, T'Soni." Garrus encouragingly leaned forward and a smile spread across Liara's face.

"Very well. I fought several explosive battles with Cerberus... I helped Shepard stop a robotic assassin on Mars..."

They both turned their heads when they heard the hissing sound of the door opening.

"Not to mention you discovered plans for a Prothean doomsday device that were buried for 50,000 years..." Shepard smiled as she entered the room.

Liara immediately lowered her head, feeling the heat creep up her cheeks once again. Shepard sat down next to her and placed her arm on the couch's backrest.

"Shepard," Garrus exclaimed, raising his glass. "We were just talking about..." He looked at Liara who still tried to evade the commander's eyes, nudging her encouragingly.

Shepard smiled while she caressed the blushing asari's arm. "...The CIC incident? Samantha's inability to speak for the next ten minutes?" she offered.

"Something like that..." Garrus' mandibles twitched. "How did our Comm Specialist take it anyway?"

Liara shot Garrus a dirty look but he simply shrugged his shoulders, obviously enjoying her torment...

Shepard sighed. "I don't know... For a while there I thought she was about to faint... Then she blushed and right before I left to come join you guys up here, she was mumbling something about 'maybe she just tripped...'. Oh, and Joker asked me to tell you to do it again. He didn't catch it the first time and he'd love to add it to his private collection."

By now, Liara had started to acquire a certain liking for her groans and so she settled for another one instead of a real response. She leaned her head back and rested it on Shepard's arm, closing her eyes while praying they could change the topic soon – which, in a room with both Shepard _and_ liquor meant her chances were pretty high...

_Just wait for it..._

There was a short pause before the commander cleared her throat.

"Is anyone gonna drink that brandy?"

. . .

Liara's omni-tool started blinking, the appearing hologram showing Aria's serious face. Liara sighed. "Again?"

Aria nodded. "I had her brought to me as soon as she attempted to start dancing but after she'd woken up on my couch a few hours later, she immediately staggered back to the bar. I haven't seen her ever since..." she stated in a calm tone.

The first time Liara had received a call from the pirate queen of Omega (as she still insisted on being called), informing her about a passed out Shepard on her couch, she'd been surprised at the almost thoughtful gesture from the other asari, but of course she knew better than to ask Aria about her motives. After all, it wasn't likely Aria would ever admit that she cared just a little bit about Shepard's well-being...

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Liara nodded. "I'll come and pick her up." As a response, Aria simply nodded once and ended the call.

* * *

Liara exited the elevator and was greeted by _Purgatory_'s dimmed bass. She'd just prepared herself to enter the crowded nightclub (by now she'd gotten used to being surrounded by people, but that didn't mean she liked it now any more than she had three years ago when visiting _Flux_ with Shepard...), she noticed a slumped down figure leaning her back against _Purgatory_'s entrance. A smile started tugging at the corner of her mouth as she remembered the first time she'd seen Shepard drunk. How shocked she'd been at the time... By now, it had become some sort of a common occurance and she was more than used to it – and had also learned she didn't have to be _that_ careful when dragging the staggering commander back to her cabin as her little revenge for Shepard's foolishness... the commander didn't remember it the next day anyway...

"What are you looking at?" Shepard was just waving her hand dismissively at a salarian who'd stopped and turned towards her.

"Disgusting," the alien spat, crossing his arms in front of his chest.

Liara hurried over to them and placed a soothing hand on the salarian's shoulder as she passed him. "I'll take care of her," she announced before he could get a closer look at the face momentarily hidden behind damp strands of flaming red hair and the salarian finally started walking again – as ordered by Shepard, who smiled smugly at her 'victory'.

"That's right, keep walking!"

With a sigh, Liara leaned over her and grabbed the commander's arm to pull her up.

"Liara!" Shepard exclaimed happily as she recognized the familiar face – and frown.

"Come on, let's get you back to your cabin..." Liara draped one of Shepard's arms over her shoulder and pulled her towards the elevator. "We'll take the next one," she told the salarian who'd just entered the elevator, a concerned expression on his face when he noticed the two figures approaching him. He nodded, obviously relieved, and the elevator doors closed. Liara leaned the still grinning commander against the wall next to the closed doors and sighed as she let her eyes wander over the woman's disheveled appearance in front of her. "What is it with you and alcohol?"

"It was free..."

_Why do I even bother asking? _Liara nodded absent-mindedly, her eyes turning back to the closed doors waiting for them to open again when she felt something heavy slump against her side.

"You know I love you, right?" Shepard slurred into her neck while leaning on her with all her weight.

Liara had to take a step back to keep her balance but she managed to support Shepard by swinging one of her arms around the commander's back. "Of course I do..." She rolled her eyes but still started patting Shepard's back. She'd _also_ gotten used to Shepard's confessions of her deep, deep love for her... Not that she didn't believe the human, there were just... other ways to show her how much she cared. Ways Liara would have preferred to this...

"You smell sooo good..."

"M-hm..."

Liara shot a quick glance over her shoulder, making sure they were still alone, before she turned back to the woman still clinging to her.

"All the time..."

"Thank you."

There were still just a few aliens gathered in front of the nightclub, none of them heading for the elevator so far...

"I've never met anyone smelling this good..."

Liara's neck was starting to feel a bit damp from Shepard's hot breath and she testingly moved her shoulder but the commander still clung to her, refusing to move her head. With a sigh, the asari stopped and returned to waiting patiently – and preferably as inconspicuously as possible...

The elevator doors finally opened and Liara quickly shoved the still staggering commander into the empty cabin, frantically pushing the button to close it again before any unsuspecting aliens could join them – and give Shepard even more chances to embarass herself in public... which _then_ would result in Liara having to work until late at night to rid the extranet of all the newly surfaced pictures afterwards...

"You're the most beautiful person I've ever met... Have I already told you that?" Shepard continued, leaning her head back on Liara's shoulder.

"A few times, yes." Couldn't this elevator go any faster?

"So beautiful..." Goddess, it felt just like the Normandy's old elevator... She shoved Shepard's insistent hands away from her labcoat just when the elevator doors finally opened again, revealing the Docking Area.

"We're almost there..." Even though they still had to cross the Docking Area, Liara couldn't resist brushing a few of the damp strands of hair out of Shepard's face, cupping the human's cheek to force her to look up. "Shepard, I need you to work with me here..."

Still smiling happily, the woman nodded and staggered out of the elevator, one of her arms still draped around Liara's shoulders for support. After a few more staggering steps, Shepard suddenly straightened up and her walk became controlled again. The heavy weight on her shoulders was lifted and Liara sighed in relief. _Thank the Goddess..._

"Better?"

Shepard turned to her and nodded, running her hand through her hair a few times and straightening her outfit, and soon enough nothing in her expression or appearance showed how miserable she'd looked only seconds ago... She wrapped an arm around Liara's waist and together, they walked to the docked Normandy.

While waiting for the airlock's door to open, Shepard placed a soft kiss on Liara's temple, whispering, "Thank you."

Liara smiled. Yes, by now, she had gotten used to Shepard's strange behavior...

* * *

_A/N: Is it just me or did that last sentence sound like "Desperate Housewives"?  
_

_I apologize, but a drunk Shepard-part kinda just needs to be in all of my stories, I can't help it... too bad those effects don't last longer in the actual game, I would just love to take on a mission with that blurry vision and a slight stagger... :) (Wait, is that just a new idea forming in my head...?)  
_

_Next up: Feron shows up (it's about time Liara gets her own admirer!), Shepard's fuming and Liara's flustered (once more)...  
_

_Oh and by the way: thanks a lot for all your reviews, they really make my day! See you next time...  
_


	7. Chapter 7

**"There's no way you're recruiting me to fight in a galactic war."**

**.**

Shepard nodded, giving a heavy sigh. "Yeah, you've already said that a few times now..."

"And yet you insisted on me escorting you all the way back to the Normandy." Kasumi crossed her arms in front of her chest while her eyes gleamed from under her hood. "Do you think I'm that naive?"

Shepard's face lit up. "I think you're very smart, and that's exactly why we could use-"

"Shep, listen." The master thief sighed, holding up her hand to stop Shepard's poor flattery. "I really enjoyed having a couple of drinks at _Purgatory_ while talking about old times and I didn't refuse when Aria asked me to make sure you reach your ship safely after attemting to climb onto a moving dance platform and almost breaking your neck in the process, but there's no way I'm letting you drag me along for another suicide mission."

"It's just Tuchanka! Besides, I hear the weather's lovely this time of year..."

"Not a chance."

. . .

_"You're kidding."_

Samantha sighed, tapping at her terminal half-heartedly while she shot a quick glance at the cockpit where Shepard had just exited the airlock and joined Joker. "I wish I was..."

* * *

"She actually did that? They made out in the CIC?" Diana's eyebrow rose in surprise and she turned towards the comm system just as Samantha's voice rang out again.

_"Well, technically, my view was obscured, so it could have been a simple accident..."_

"Traynor..."

_"Or a kiss between friends. Friends do that from time to time, right?"_

Smiling, Diana shook her head as she continued scrolling through the datapad in front of her, making a few adjustments here and there.

_"Are you still there?"_ came Samantha's cautious voice after a short pause.

"Yeah, sure." Diana propped her chin in the palm of her hand while she studied her finished report. She sighed, rubbing at her tired eyes.

* * *

_"Man, why couldn't I become a trashy gossip columnist like Al-Jilani... They're giving us gold here and I'm stuck writing about the war... Hey, is it true that the turian Primarch's son sacrificed himsel-"_

Diana's voice stopped abruptly when Liara's forehead hit the terminal's keypad, a groan escaping the asari while she buried her face in her arms.

"Dr. T'Soni, is there-"

"Glyph, please create a list of all competent merchants on the Citadel and transfer it to my terminal. And set up a link to Barla Von on the Citadel, I need him to do something for me..."

"As you wish, Dr. T'Soni."

Liara's jaw clenched in determination. The gloves were finally off now...

. . .

"I am impressed by your continued existence, Shepard."

Scratching the nape of her neck, Shepard shot a quick, confused sideglance at EDI. "Erm... thank you...?"

"The probability of surviving as long as you have is low," the AI continued without interrupting her mobile platform's hands' movements on the controls in front of her.

"Right... I'll remember that the next time I leave for a mission..." Shepard's eyes narrowed before she leaned back over Joker's chair, gazing at the dark space outside as the Normandy steered away from the Citadel.

"Don't discourage her," Joker chastised his co-pilot without taking his eyes off the various ships flying to and from the space station, "We only have one Commander Shepard. Who's gonna face all those monstrosities when she's not around anymore?"

"Joker..." Shepard's eyebrow rose when the pilot's innocent eyes met hers.

"Yeeees?"

"Just focus on-"

Shepard's next words were drowned out by the sound of the elevator hissing open in the CIC and an enraged krogan storming out, followed by a quiet salarian.

"That's it, Shepard!" Wrex bellowed as he stormed towards the cockpit. "I swear, if this salarian cuts out one more piece of my... flesh, I'll carve out his eyeballs and wear them as a necklace!"

"Easy there, Wrex..." The commander raised both hands, which, surprisingly enough, seemed to soothe the krogan immediately. Wrex' shoulders visibly slumped down and he gave a heavy sigh as he leaned against the airlock's closed door, his narrowed eyes still following Mordin as he approached the small group gathered in the cockpit, a metallic object quickly disappearing in the salarian's pocket.

"Mordin?" Shepard crossed her arms in front of her chest, eyeing the salarian questioningly.

Mordin shrugged. "Simply need tissue samples, not my fault Wrex is so sensitive..."

"_Sensitive_?" the krogan yelled, throwing his arms up in exasperation. "I'll show you sensitive, you little-"

"Wrex, calm down."

Just like before, Shepard's calm tone caused the krogan to lean back against the door, shaking his head angrily. "You can cut off one of my arms if you need more tissue samples, but keep your damn scalpel off my... flesh..."

Biting her lower lip in an attempt not to grin when she noticed Wrex' fidgeting, Shepard turned back to Mordin, forcing a serious expression. "Mordin, is it truly necessary to constantly cut into Wrex'... 'flesh'? Don't you have enough samples already? I talked to Eve the other day and-"

"That's it!" Wrex interrupted her, pushing himself off the door and approaching Mordin with an accusing glare. "You just wanted to make me look weak in front of Eve, isn't that right, _salarian_?"

Mordin's dark eyes blinked a few times, his mouth remaining shut.

"Wait a minute!" Joker turned in his chair, a wide grin on his face, "You and Eve?" He gave a short laugh. "Wow, Mordin, didn't think you had it in you..."

"Eve seems to approve of my singi-"

"Stay away from my female, salarian!"

"Guys, keep an eye on the testosterone level in here, please..."

"Speaking of..." Joker had turned back to a blinking light on his controls and he started chuckling after a few commands. "Oh, you're gonna like this..." he announced before he hit a button and all heads turned to the door of the airlock as it opened.

A smile quickly replaced the confused expression on Shepard's face at the sight of a nervous Feron, clutching a bunch of flowers in his hands. The commander placed a hand to her chest and sighed. "Are these for me? Aw, but I haven't even saved the galaxy yet..."

Feron's eyes widened and he opened his mouth – but closed it again quickly when he noticed five curious pairs of eyes on him. Knowing how intimidating and confusing an enraged krogan and still quiet salarian doctor – not to mention a leering human with his synthetic co-pilot – could be to others, Shepard patted him on the shoulder and nodded towards the elevator. "Liara's in her office on the Crew Deck, just follow the beeping and endless sound of tapping."

"Th- thank you, Commander." The drell turned and hastily approached the elevator Shepard was pointing at.

"Go get her, tiger!" The human crossed her arms in front of her chest and smiled as she watched his retreating back, turning around when she heard Joker clear his throat behind her.

"I know it's none of my business but... are you just gonna let him visit your girl with a bunch of flowers?"

Mordin nodded eagerly. "Humans aren't the only species aware of the symbolic meaning of plants as a gift, not to mention the aphrodisiac powers triggered by certain floral scents..."

"Go get your woman, Shepard!" Wrex summed up all their advices as he roughly patted her on the shoulder.

Shepard's brows furrowed when she felt a sudden sting in her chest she'd already felt once before...

_'So, you and Feron...'_

Her eyes widened and she spun around on her heels. "Don't kill each other while I'm gone!" Accompanied by a few encouraging shouts – mostly Joker's wolf whistles – she sped towards the elevator, slipping into the cabin just before its doors could close completely.

"On second thought, I think I'll escort you to her," she announced to a confused Feron, still panting lightly from her race. "It's a big ship," she added, "Wouldn't want you to get lost..."

Feron nodded cautiously and then quickly averted his eyes just as the elevator started its ascent.

After a few more seconds to catch her breath, Shepard turned to the fidgeting drell to her right, a threatening gleam in her eyes.

"So, Feron... how's work?"

. . .

"Feron!" Liara exclaimed as she turned away from her terminal, a surprised expression on her face.

The drell entered her office, nervously searching his pockets until he found what he'd been looking for, and handed her a datapad. "I... I brought you my report..." he stammered, noticing the flowers he was still clutching with his free hand and quickly shoving them towards a startled Liara. "And these are for you."

Liara took the offered flowers, her cheeks darkening immediately as they looked at each other for a moment, both smiling shyly.

"I... Thank you." Liara swallowed once. Goddess, she wasn't used to situations like these... She had never had many admirers aside from Shepard... and the commander had never brought her flowers, now that she thought about it... _Shepard!_ Her eyes shot to the door where said commander was leaning against the doorframe, observing them with watchful eyes.

Obviously embarassed, Liara cleared her throat and nodded at the commander. "Thank you, I... can take it from here."

Shepard's eyes narrowed in suspicion but she still pushed herself off the doorframe and left Liara's office without another word, the door hissing shut behind her.

Was it just her or did the door to Liara's office close even faster than usual? Shepard turned around and was satisfied to see that at least the lock on it was still green. She could get back in there at any time... And who knew? Maybe there suddenly might be something that needed Liara's immediate attention, something she'd have to show her- _Stop it!_

Grabbing a random liquor bottle and a glass from the kitchen in the empty Mess Hall, Shepard sat down on the chair with the best view on the still closed door and poured herself a drink, leaning back with the glass in her hand. Taking a first, slow sip, she settled her eyes on the door to Liara's office. There wasn't anything else to do at the time anyway, so she could make herself comfortable here while she waited for the drell to leave Liara's office again... and she'd be damned if she'd miss any suspicious wrinkles on his clothes...

Feron... Shepard's eyes narrowed again as she downed the drink in her hand with one large gulp, refilling her glass without taking her eyes off the door. She didn't even care about the liquor she spilled in the process...

_Don't think I don't see what you're doing there, buddy... At first you're just the good, reliable friend, the shoulder to cry on, but as soon as you see your chance, _BAM!_ you go in for the kill..._

Another glass was emptied, another pool of liquor formed on the table.

_You spend a lot of time with her, make her trust you first until you start with a few, well-placed compliments. Nothing to make her uncomfortable, but enough to make her smile at you, to make her feel special..._

Again, the empty glass hit the table, remaining there only for a second before it was lifted once more, leaving a new rim at its place on the table.

_You use your geeky superpowers to impress her with all your knowledge because hey, she's an archeologist turned information broker, so she must like science and all the useless information you've gathered over the years... Make her forget all about that lame soldier-girlfriend she has, who doesn't even know how to erase her own extranet-search..._

Shepard refilled her glass, not caring about the lightening bottle in her hand, and downed it again, sighing heavily as she propped her chin in the palm of her hand, her tired eyes still on the closed door.

She trusted Liara, sure, but the thought that she and the drell had spent an awful lot of time alone on a deserted ship no one except the Normandy crew even knew where to find had always bugged the commander... It had made her wonder what had happened on this ship whenever she hadn't been around to coincidentally check all the terminals Liara had set up for her – finding excuses to do so every other week.

What scared her the most though was the thought that, should Liara choose the safety Feron offered her over the uncertain future she'd have with Shepard – which was exactly what would expect them both – there was nothing she could do about it, nothing to change that simple fact or give Liara any guarantees that they'd make it out of this alive, no matter how much Shepard wished she could... The truth of the matter was: Liara would be better off with Feron...

Another sigh escaped her as she held the bottle over her glass once more and paused when she didn't hear the familiar sound of liquor filling the glass. Forcing her eyes off the (still closed) door, she looked down at the now empty bottle in her hand. Huh, she hadn't even realized she'd emptied it already... _Must have been halfway emptied already_, she concluded.

Sighing, she got up from her chair and walked over to the small kitchen to put the glass and the empty bottle away. She'd have to find something else to pass the time and she couldn't afford passing out at the table – which would probably happen if she kept on drinking... Her eyes wandered around the hall in thought. Distracting Garrus from his calibrations was out of the question, he was too far away from Liara's office... Visiting Dr. Chakwas normally involved needles (and she _really_ didn't like those...) or more Serrice Ice Brandy (which she, sadly, _really_ didn't need right now)...

She started walking back to the table, a cloth in her hand as she set to cleaning the liquor she'd spilled beforehand. Once she was finished with that, she shot a quick glance over her shoulder just to groan a second later while she walked back to the kitchen. Still no sign of Feron... She threw the cloth into the kitchen sink and turned back around, starting to aimlessly wander around the mess hall.

Just as she was about to start rearranging all the tables and chairs out of boredom, she heard the familiar hissing sound behind her. She immediately spun around and saw Liara standing in the doorway to her office, smiling at Feron who stuttered his goodbyes. Liara's eyes wandered past the still nervous drell and settled on Shepard who quickly turned away, activating her omni-tool and tapping a few random commands to give the impression of being busy.

Soon after, Feron walked past the commander and turned the corner to summon the elevator.

"Have a nice day..." Shepard raised her head and followed him with her narrowed eyes – just to make sure he was actually leaving – until he was out of sight. She tensed briefly when she felt arms snake around her waist only seconds later, but relaxed when Liara pressed herself against her back.

"Have you waited out here the entire time?" Liara murmured, amusement audible in her voice.

Shepard shrugged her shoulders. "Ah, you know... I had this... thing to do..."

Liara peeked over her shoulder, glancing at the still activated omni-tool. "Skeifjnsdfk," she read and nodded in feigned seriousness. "Sounds like a _very_ important mission report..."

"Yeah, I... erm, I wasn't finished yet... and it's top secret and... encrypted..." Shepard cleared her throat and quickly shut down her omni-tool before she turned in Liara's arms.

Liara smiled, raising a playful eyebrow. "Is that jealousy I see there on your face, Commander?" And without waiting for Shepard's response – which would have been an open mouth without any words to come out anyway – she added, "My, I didn't think the great Commander Shepard could get jealous of a simple Shadow Broker agent..."

"A Shadow Broker agent bringing flowers to his boss," Shepard grumbled.

Liara shrugged, clasping her hands on Shepard's back as she pulled her even closer. "You have never brought me flowers..." She slightly tilted her head to the side, an amused smile playing around her lips as she added, "Why's that?"

Shepard shrugged. "I just never figured you for a flower girl... Had I known, I would have mowed the entire Citadel Commons for you," she quickly added and Liara had no doubt she was speaking the truth. After all, if the great Commander Shepard wanted something, she usually got it – as many flustered waitresses frantically searching the extranet for a thing called "vanilla coke" could confirm...

"Well, you have nothing to fear from Feron. After all, you did leave quite an impression on him during your elevator ride... I don't think he'll ever show up on this ship again..."

"He better not! You know, I think I've been too nice to him when I first met him... Should have asked him a few more questions while he was strapped to that torture chair..."

"Shepard!" Liara slapped Shepard's arm, feigning shock. Her expression softened quickly however and she gently cupped Shepard's cheek when she noticed the serious gleam in the other's eyes. "Feron is important to me, but there is nothing to be concerned about."

"You know he's the safer choice, right?"

Liara's brows furrowed for a second as she contemplated Shepard's words before a warm smile spread across her face. "You safe me every day, Shepard. I couldn't feel more safe or protected or cared for than when I'm with you. And Feron is simply..." She gave a sad sigh. "He reminds me of the time you were gone, the time I've been forced to..." Liara averted her eyes, biting her lower lip. "There were things I've done while I was working as an information broker I'm not proud of... Feron... he helped me get back some of my old self while we worked alongside on the Shadow Broker ship when you were out there saving the galaxy and I'll always be grateful for that..."

"Don't worry." Shepard tightened their embrace, placing a soft kiss on Liara's forehead. "I'm back to make all those future renegade decisions for you again. You don't have to be the person you were back on Illium."

A second passed before a mischievous smile started tugging at Liara's lips and she raised her head, challenging, "I'm not going to go back to the shy archeologist persona you met three years ago on Therum if that's what you're hoping, Commander..."

Shepard shrugged. "Or we can both be badasses from now on, I don't mind. Actually, you were kinda sexy threatening that contact on Illium..."

Trying to hide her smile, Liara sighed heavily and, while nodding, patted Shepard's arm lightly. "I know."

She shot another glance at the woman holding her, a content smile on her lips. She hadn't known about Shepard's insecurities, but it seemed the time had come to finally take a stand in this regard...

* * *

_I hope the first bit wasn't too confusing... Anyway, one more listened-in conversation between Traynor and Allers as well as Traynor still in denial, especially for you, Gemini1179... :)_

_Thanks a lot everyone else for reviewing, etc. and a special thank you to all silent/anonymous readers (if there are any), I love you too... :)_

_Next up: Liara's project... aww..._

_On another note: I've recently discovered some kind of music-shuffle-thingie I've started during my absence from , hoping it would help me finish all those unfinished stories (which it didn't), but since they're too short and unimportant to create a new story or even chapter for them, I'll just randomly add them to the end of some of the future chapters for no apparent reason...  
_

_I should warn you though, most of the time they've got nothing to do with the song itself, its lyrics, etc. Mostly they're just ideas that came to my mind while listening to the songs and please don't ask me why or how... :) Anyway, they're not in any way important for the story, it's up for debate if they even could happen during this story, but I just didn't know where else to put them, so that's why they're here...  
_

* * *

**"Jump On It" Tonto**

**.**

"You sure you don't want to join?" Shepard shot Liara a gleeful smile, her red hair flying around her head like fire.

The asari vigorously shook her head, her eyes wide in shock.

"Come on, it's fun!" James chimed in, smiling from ear to ear.

Liara's eyebrow rose in disbelief. "Absolutely not!"

Shepard shrugged. "Suit yourself."

A scream could be heard behind the small group and the commander turned her head to James, her eyes gleaming. They both grinned at each other before nodding in silent understanding. Careful not to slip on the slimy content covering the floor, the two stepped off the remains of a battered husk and charged at the next unsuspecting creature unaware of its fate.

James lunged forward and his fist collided with the creature's head, sending it flying backwards. With a scream that could only be described as primal, both humans rushed to the still struggling husk lying on the floor and jumped, starting their feral display of, as Shepard had called it 'creative enemy-decimation', once again.

Becoming aware of the feeling of nausea starting to take over her body, Liara covered her mouth with her hand and turned away, heading out of the cave where she hungrily inhaled the fresh air, stopping only when she couldn't hear the awful sounds behind her anymore, forcing a smile to Cortez as she crawled back into the shuttle waiting to pick them up again.

The pilot shot her a concerned look. "Are you all right, Dr. T'Soni?"

The asari nodded, closing her eyes and resting her head on the wall behind her. "Just fine."

"Where's the rest of the squad?"

Liara swallowed hard, still keeping her eyes shut. "It still might take a while, I'm afraid..."


	8. Chapter 8

**"Liara. You had something you wanted to discuss in my cabin?"**

**.**

Shepard's voice jolted Liara out of her thoughts and she closed the little box in her hand she'd absent-mindeldy been playing with for the last couple of minutes. She leaned forward and cleared her throat before activating the comm. "Yes. I'll be right up."

Taking a deep breath, she stashed the box in one of her labcoat's pockets and reached over to grab the device standing next to her terminal before she left her office, heading for the elevator.

. . .

"...And it was a priviledge to know her."

"Careful this doesn't sound like a diary..." Smiling, Shepard leaned back on her couch while her eyes followed Liara as the asari gracefully sat down next to her.

A playful smile adorning her lips, Liara shrugged. "I can't help myself..."

With a sigh, she mirrored Shepard's relaxed position on the couch and placed a hand on the commander's thigh, her thumb starting to trace slow patterns while she contemplated Shepard's holographic image still being projected in front of them. It felt so surreal, knowing that this was how future generations would see Shepard while she had the priviledge of sitting next to the living, breathing original... How could any record ever come close to that?

"You're a good friend, Shepard."

Shepard's eyebrow immediately shot up at Liara's choice of words. She turned to the asari only to find her still absent-mindedly contemplating her holographic representation and a mischievous smile tugged at the commander's lips as she leaned over. "A friend, huh?"

Liara blinked a few times to break out of her reverie when she felt a pair of soft lips on her neck and her smile returned. "Well, maybe more than just a friend..." she admitted while Shepard continued to trail kisses up her neck and over her jawline.

"M-hm..." Shepard's hand came up to Liara's cheek, slowly turning her head until their lips met.

"_A lot_ more than just a friend," Liara whispered against Shepard's lips, feeling the commander smile into the kiss.

"Good..." Shepard released Liara and sank back into the couch, giving a suddenly nervous asari time to take a couple of much needed, deep breaths, "Just wanted to clarify that..." She reached for one of the two wine glasses on the coffee table and let the soft Thessian wine tease her taste buds before she offered Liara her own – barely touched – glass, adding, "You've been there for me too, Liara."

"No, I haven't." The regret was evident in her voice, but before Shepard could react, Liara had reached for her glass, taken a large gulp and leaned forward on the couch as if suddenly needing to put a physical distance between the two of them. "I wish I could have joined you back on Illium," she admitted, contemplating the wine glass in her hands while the red liquid licked at its confines.

They remained silent for a long moment before Shepard carefully reached out, letting her fingers slowly trace down Liara's back. "Well, I wasn't exactly a rolemodel of faithfulness either..." she whispered softly.

Whether it was the honest, forgiving tone in Shepard's voice, the exciting shudder her fingers caused in their wake down her back or the generous gulp of the potent wine Liara had taken beforehand was hard to tell, but she suddenly couldn't stop a short laugh to escape her lips while she shook her head in amusement. "A hanar..."

"Yeah, well... I was curious..." Shepard grinned, giving a silent, thankful sigh at the changed atmosphere.

"One day, you'll have to share that memory with me..." Liara smiled over her shoulder.

_Ugh, I knew this was coming... _Shepard sighed in defeat and nodded. "I guess I deserve that... But you have to promise me that we'll never talk about it afterwards! And I mean _never_!"

Liara shrugged in feigned indifference. "I might put it in my memoirs..."

With a painful groan, Shepard buried her face in her hands. "I'm just glad you didn't have the chance to include that part in your project already..."

Liara gave a short laugh and slightly shifted her weight, suddenly feeling the box in her labcoat's pocket poke her thigh. With the reminder that her project had only been the first half of her confessions tonight, she turned back to her wine glass – in case she needed some more liquid encouragement – and took a deep breath before she started. "Do you remember when I told you how most people on Mars kept their distance because I was the only asari, and that they didn't trust me because of that?" She glanced over her shoulder.

Shepard nodded but remained silent while she waited for Liara to continue.

With a short nod, Liara turned back to her glass and continued talking to the red liquid, "When I was aboard the original Normandy three years ago, your crew mistrusted me as well. I mostly kept to myself during that time, yet _you_ immediately agreed to make me a part of your crew. You never doubted me, Shepard..." She took a deep breath and turned her head to see Shepard's reaction; the woman was still observing her silently, giving Liara an encouraging smile. "You always made me feel welcome. You were..." Liara smiled sadly. "You were always there for me and I wish I had been there for you when you came back to me... You had just been brought back to life, which I was partly involved in, but yet I wasn't there for you when you needed me the most..."

It was silent for a moment while Shepard took another sip from her drink and then placed her wine glass back on the coffee table before she spoke. "You _were_ there for me, Liara..."

"I wasn't-"

"No, please let me finish..." Shepard lightly touched Liara's back in apology for the interruption. "You may not have been part of my crew at the time – though I'm pretty sure you and Miranda wouldn't have gotten along anyway..." that caused one corner of Liara's lips to slightly pull upwards in what could be described as a smile, "But you've always been there for me, one way or another, don't you see? I guess I don't have to remind you that you are the only reason I'm alive today and I can't even begin to imagine what you've been through to achieve that... Oh, and don't think I don't know you've been spying on me ever since we've met on Illium..."

"I don't know what you're talking about, Commander..."

"Right..."

Shepard sighed and ran a hand through her hair, shooting a longing glance at her wine glass. She just wasn't made for these kinds of talks... "What I'm trying to say is this: I was lost without you. I'm sure you've read the reports from last year: I was basically just stumbling from mission to mission, not caring about the outcome... Jesus, I killed more than 300'000 batarians without hesitation. I didn't even kill that many salarians back on Virmire, but I just didn't care about it, I just felt empty... It took me a long time to realize what was missing, but chasing after the Shadow Broker, having you by my side again... it made me feel alive. So please, don't ever beat yourself up over something as trivial as not rushing right after me to a ship almost bursting with biotic psychos, pubescent tube-aliens and just in general a crew with more issues than should be allowed for a team tasked to save the galaxy..."

Smiling, Liara traced the rim of her wine glass with her thumb. "I'm sure it wasn't that bad..."

She was answered with a heavy sigh. "Every week started with the infamous use-up-all-the-remaining-warm-water-before-Miranda-day, followed by the weekly file-a-complaint-about-Jack-and-threaten-to-take-away-Shepard's-ship-collection-at-disregard-day. Grunt almost tore a hole in the ship's hulk with his constant head-butting for no apparent reason other than he felt the need to act out, and I had to visit Zaeed's cabin at least three times a day because he refused to take care of the garbage disposer there himself, so yes, it was _that_ bad..."

"Well, Commander, that almost sounds like you're happy to have me back..." Patting Shepard's thigh empathetically, Liara leaned back on the couch and into Shepard's waiting arms pulling her close. She bit her lower lip as she reached into her labcoat's pocket and pulled out a small box, contemplating it nervously. "There's one more thing, though..."

Shepard's eyes fell on the box and her smile widened as its content wasn't hard to guess... "Dr. T'Soni... are you proposing to me?"

Liara's eyes widened and she shot back up. "What? No! Oh, no! I..." she stammered, almost stashing the box back in her pocket out of embarrassment, "I... am aware of the symbolic meaning of a ring as a wedding band, as am I aware of the human custom itself, but I simply..." She searched for words, clasping the box in her hands before she gave up and sighed in defeat, lowering her head. "I simply thought it would make it clear to certain crew members that you're mine... In an absolutely... non-possessive kind of way, of course! That is... if you want it..." she added quickly.

Shepard's smile only grew wider. _That must have been the most adorable non-proposal I've ever heard..._

"Of course I do," she whispered softly and reached over to close her hands around Liara's shaking ones, soothing them with her thumbs. "Anyone in particular I should know about?"

Liara gave a long, heavy sigh, contemplating the box in her hands. "I thought, since both Diana and Samantha are human females, they might have a certain... respect of a ring as a symbol for a... bond..." she continued, remembering all the nights she'd spent searching the extranet for those informations...

"You mean their eyes will start sparkling as soon as they see it and, distracted by the emotions set free in every woman at the sight of such a ring, they will forget about being after me in the first place and be gleefully happy for me?" Shepard raised an amused eyebrow, causing Liara to blush even more as she slowly nodded.

"Something like that, yes..." One of Liara's eyebrows rose as she added, "Human females seem to have a strange obsession with rings..."

"Have you been watching romantic vids on the extranet?"

Liara shrugged, trying to make it look indifferent. "A few..."

Shepard gave a short laugh and shook her head in amusement. "So when I asked you to join a poker game with me, James and Cortez last night and you declined, instead of being busy with reports of your agents like you told me, you were actually watching old human vids on the extranet?"

"No, that was the truth. I couldn't bear watching you lose all your credits again so easily..."

"Ouch."

Liara's expression turned serious again and she lowered her head, sighing as she admitted, "If this doesn't work... I don't know what else to do..."

"You could have told me, you know..." As Liara continued to evade Shepard's eyes, the human shrugged, let go of Liara's hands and leaned back on the couch with a mischievous smile. "Well, we could always toss them out the airlock..." she offered and Liara gave a short laugh, but still kept her head down.

Her eyes softening, Shepard gently grabbed Liara's arm and pulled her over, lifting her onto her lap and placing a firm hand on the asari's right hip.

"I'll wear it as visible as possible," she promised before she placed her free hand on Liara's cheek and kissed her.

Liara smiled shyly and pulled back from the kiss to open the box and present Shepard its content, her eyes starting to gleam in excitement. "It wasn't exactly easy to find one," she explained as she took the ring out of its velveted home, "I had to have one made for you... I think it is still a solely human custom to wear such jewelry..." Her brows furrowed at a sudden memory. "And it took me quite some time to explain the merchant why I wanted a custom-designed female screw..."

"I bet." Giving a short laugh, Shepard nodded in empathy as she held out her hand for Liara to place the ring on – according to her studies – its proper place.

"Must have something to do with the practicability while wearing gloves and firing weapons..." the human mused while she contemplated the ring on her finger, its vibrant blue form that elegantly snaked around her finger reminding her of Thessia's architecture she'd seen on pictures during her research of Liara's homeplanet.

With a triumphant smile, Liara reached for her labcoat's pocket again and produced a silver necklace, letting the cool material spill into Shepard's hand.

"Romantic _and _practical..." Shepard shook her head smilingly, giving a mocking sigh, "How did I deserve you?"

Liara smiled, running her finger down the valley between Shepard's breasts while breathing, "Well, I'd say you were incredibly lucky, Commander..."

"Indeed..." Shepard smiled up at her, reaching out to cup Liara's cheek.

Just before their lips met, a proud gleam made Shepard's eyes shine brightly as they fell on her new gift matching Liara's skin tone perfectly and her smile widened before she closed her eyes, welcoming Liara's lips in a soft kiss.

. . .

"First love."

Shepard gave a short laugh which forced Liara who was leaning against her to slightly change her position. The two of them were still on Shepard's couch, though soon enough its generous size had made the human decide to stretch out on it, which didn't leave Liara much choice other than to lean against her, her head resting in the crook of Shepard's neck while the human's hand traced random patterns on her arm, stopping every now and then to give her a chance to glance at the ring still sparkling at her finger, a smile crossing her face every time she did so...

"First real love, first crush or first relationship?" Shepard challenged, her smile widening when Liara turned her head to look up at her, an eyebrow raised.

"Is there a difference?" the asari asked with a slightly confused expression.

After reaching to the coffee table with her free hand and taking an unnecessarily careful sip from her drink, Shepard nodded slowly. "Oh yes," she answered, an amused smile playing around her lips. When Liara remained silent, she took another sip from her drink and then placed the glass back on the coffee table, nodding. "All right, got one for you..." She closed her eyes to focus on the memory when she felt Liara's presence in her mind...

* * *

_"Here's to us!"_

_The group of people gathered around the round table raised their glasses, some of them cheering before they all downed their drinks._

_Shepard set the glass back down on the table and smilingly let her eyes wander over the small group of fresh N7-soldiers. Her eyes settled on a young man with short, black hair right across the table and her smile widened. The man caught her look and returned the smile, winking at her before he refilled his glass and turned to the man sitting to his left, engaging him in a conversation._

_Lowering her eyes back to her empty glass, Shepard felt a surge of warmth spread through her stomach and she slowly nodded to herself. All these years of training and privation had definitely paid off. She had found a new purpose in life, a new family and after everything it had cost her to get here, she found she deserved some happiness, some relaxation..._

_Her eyes met the man's across the table once more and his quick nodd was all the affirmation she needed to know that the time of hardships was finally over. She deserved a reward; they all did._

_After taking a deep breath, she pushed herself off the table and rounded it, her eyes never leaving her target..._

* * *

"What was his name?"

Liara's voice jolted Shepard back to reality and she blinked. "Hm?"

"His name," Liara inquired once more, honest curiosity gleaming in her eyes which were watching Shepard intently now.

Shepard thought for a moment before she shrugged. "I don't remember..."

"You... you don't remember?"

The shocked tone in Liara's voice caused an apologetic smile to spread across Shepard's face as she shrugged once more. "It's been a while..." she mumbled, running a hand through her hair.

"But he was your first love?" Liara stated more than asked.

"Kind of..."

"Kind of?"

Shepard sighed, vaguely motioning through the air with her free hand. "Well, there were some flings in my youth, but he was the first long relationship I had, yes." A smile spread across her face as she added, "If you can call two months a long time, that is..."

"Well, I..." Liara's forehead creased in thought and Shepard continued her fingers' trail along the asari's arm in soothing circles. She suspected the asari didn't realize how adorable she was when she was flustered...

"My turn. How about _your_ first love?"

Liara's eyes were back on Shepard's, her expression changing from serious thought to confusion within seconds. "You already know the answer to that question," she stated in a tone that only spoke of surprise.

Shepard's eyebrow rose skeptically. "Really? In all those years, there was no one special? No dashing krogan mercenary you came across during one of your digs?"

Liara gave a short laugh while shaking her head before she nestled her head back into Shepard's neck. "You sound like my mother, but no, there was no one 'special' until I met you. I guess I was occupied with other things at the time, much like your training to become an N7-soldier. Given asari lifespans, it wasn't exactly a long time I've spent alone... And the 'dashing krogan mercenary' turned out to being sent to abduct me, as you may recall..."

"All right, fair enough... Your turn again."

"But you already knew the answer to your question..."

Shepard smiled and raised her hand off Liara's arm, contemplating the new, blue addition to her ring finger once more, as if to reassure herself it was still there... "Don't tell me there aren't any more things you want to ask me... now's your chance..."

"I..."

Satisfied with her contemplation, Shepard's fingers returned to their task on Liara's arm. "Why don't you ask me about what has been bugging you for a while now?"

Liara's head rose once more. "And what would that be?"

"Why, of all the people I've met so far, I chose you and never intend on leaving your side again... Why I'm so fascinated by you..."

Before Liara even had time to blush, Shepard had cupped the asari's face in her hand, gently pulling it towards her before kissing her softly while images started flooding both their minds...

She saw different pictures, different memories, all following each other in quick succession, almost too quick to decipher what time they were from. What stood out in all of those memories though was Liara herself; there were images of her warm smile, her eyes as they passed Shepard's in an almost coincidental fassion, short glimpses of the asari when she wasn't aware of her audience while she sat hunched over a datapad... She could hear her own voice, its soft tone, her husky whispers and all of it was enveloped in an all-consuming feeling of love and admiration from Shepard.

The feeling of hot breath against her lips finally brought Liara back to reality and it took a while for her eyes to focus back on the human's smiling face. She inhaled deeply while her right hand came up to cup Shepard's cheek, hoping her eyes could convey the feelings her mouth couldn't...

"That was..." Liara shook her head, taking another few deep breaths. "Thank you... for showing me."

Shepard's smile widened, her thumb brushing over Liara's cheek. "Anytime..."

Suddenly feeling bold after what she'd just experienced, Liara took another deep breath before she turned fully and propped herself up on Shepard's chest, her arms crossing while she fixed the human with a calm look. "Tell me about your first asari."

Shepard coughed. "My... what?"

Liara shrugged, unimpressed. "You seemed to know what you were doing all those years ago... So unless you've done a lot of research – which, judging by your extranet search history, I doubt – I assume there must have been someone to teach you..." She bit her lower lip, turning her head away to hide her blush before she continued, "...certain things..."

A smile crept across Shepard's face as she leaned forward, her lips brushing against Liara's skin just between her neck and her crests, her smile widening when she felt the asari shudder. "You mean this?"

Liara swallowed when she felt Shepard's hand trail down her side and onto the small of her back, finding just the right point to apply pressure with ease, eliciting a gasp from her prey. "Or this?"

Taking a ragged breath, Liara nodded, closing her eyes to focus. "For example..." she managed to breathe until she finally forced her eyes open again, grabbing Shepard's roaming hand before it managed to further clear her mind of all coherent thought. "You still haven't answered my question," she stated, regaining some of her composure with every second she kept Shepard's hand away from her sensitive skin.

The commander sighed and let her head fall back against the couch, nodding. "Oh fine..."

* * *

_"That's it, you're good to go."_

_The asari dressed in a white lab coat turned away from the bed Shepard was sitting on, pulling off her gloves and tossing them into a trash bin. "Try not to get killed out there," she smiled over her shoulder as Shepard got off the bed and pulled a jacket over her freshly bandaged arm._

_"Thanks, Doc. Having you take care of me afterwards is almost worth the pain of getting wounded..." Shepard winked at the asari before she turned to the door of the infirmary only to be stopped by a hand on her arm holding her back._

_"I mean it." The asari's eyes searched Shepard's. "We're grateful for what you and your comrades are doing for this colony, but it's not worth getting yourselves killed just because you couldn't keep your distance to the Thresher Maw nest..."_

_Shepard shrugged, still smiling. "Well, we gotta take care of them somehow, might as well lure them out into the open..."_

_"Then at least promise me you won't be the first to volunteer every single time..." The asari's grip on Shepard's arm tightened. "I'm worried about you. You've been in my infirmary ten times this week already..."_

_"Maybe I'm just looking for excuses to see you," Shepard challenged which earned her a short laugh and a smile from the doctor._

_"In that case I can assure you there are easier ways for that..."_

* * *

Liara broke the meld, unable to stop the sudden feeling of jealousy arise in her. "I wasn't your first doctor?"

The commander shrugged apologetically. "You were my first archeologist, that's gotta count for something..."

Suddenly feeling overwhelmed by the jealousy burning inside her – coupled with her momentary profession as an information broker – Liara decided she needed to know as much about her predecessor as she could coax from Shepard... right now!

"As much as I appreciate your concern, you don't have to keep all those memories censored for me, Shepard..."

Shepard's eyebrow rose challengingly. "Are we getting curious, Dr. T'Soni?"

Liara shrugged in feigned indifference. "I'm simply stating the facts... I don't think there's anything I couldn't handle..."

"Very well..." Shepard sighed.

Her eyes gleaming in curiosity, Liara inched closer and closed her eyes, reaching out to Shepard's mind...

...and suddenly burst out laughing, pulling back slightly and covering her mouth with her hand in an attempt to compose herself when she noticed Shepard's blush.

"Hey, I had to learn all those things somehow..." the human defended herself, a slight pout forming on her lips. "I've never touched an asari before..."

Liara bit her lower lip and placed a soothing hand on the other's chest. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to laugh..." She stifled a chuckle before adding, "That was very thoughtful of you... How did she react?"

"Pretty much the same way you did..." A mischievous gleam lit up Shepard's eyes when she slowly pulled Liara back down towards her. "That was until she showed me this..."

"Goddess..."

* * *

_A/N: Aaaand we're finally done with the long touchy-feely stuff for a while, hurray! In case you're wondering why I'm writing stuff I don't always like to write: I just thought they deserved some happy times... after all, we still have Thessia ahead of us... On another note: it was interesting to see that some of you thought Shepard should be the one to show Liara her love while others thought Liara should finally put an end to Allers & Traynor's little competition... Let's see if Liara's plan works out, and don't worry: Shepard's time to make a stand will come soon enough as well... :)  
_

_As always: Thanks a lot for your reviews and your continued support, it really means a lot!_

_I'm also happy to announce that we've about made it halfway through the story now... unless there are some sudden chapter ideas I have (or you guys have) to squeeze into the already existing ones, that is... :) Now off to Tuchanka we go..._


	9. Chapter 9

_A/N: OK, well, the Citadel DLC _may _have given me some new ideas, and maybe, just maybe we haven't reached the middle of the story yet (though it's close enough), but that's all I'm gonna say... :) Makes it kinda hard to return to earlier chapters when all these ideas for the DLC chapters are running through my head, and the next upload might again take some time since I'm not really sure/happy with where I put them in the story, so that might take some time to figure out - which is not your problem... why am I even writing this?_

* * *

**"That didn't feel like a quake..."**

**.**

_Liara leaned forward to pick up the pistol she'd dropped when the ground in the catacombs had started shaking. They had been forced to use a tunnel entrance after Wrex and the other krogan had taken off in their Makos to transport Eve to Tuchanka's tower. Looking around now, Liara would have preferred to be pinned between sweaty, dirty and smelly krogan in one of the Makos instead of running through ancient tunnels, only guided by the light on their weapons. Speaking of... She hurried to follow Shepard's decreasing flashlight, not wanting to be left behind in a place like this._

_"Wrex, are you guys feeling these tremors?" _

_Liara had reached the commander again, exhaling in relief and forcing herself not to grab Shepard's arm – an impulse that seemed to overcome her whenever she found herself in dark, closed spaces as of late – when the earth shook once more, covering her crest with dust and small debris from the ceiling. She sighed, letting her eyes run over what little of her surroundings was illuminated by their flashlights and she couldn't stop thinking about how she would have loved to spend time studying these ruins in her younger days... It actually made her wonder how her life might have turned out if she hadn't met Shepard all those years ago... Certainly, the blood and gore that covered her armor nowadays would have been replaced by dust, but rubbing her crest now, trying to get all the sand out of it, she couldn't exactly tell which one she preferred..._

"It could be something else, Commander..."_ came Eve's voice over the comm at that moment, jolting her out of her musings_. "It is said that Kalros, the mother of all Thresher Maws lives in this region."

_Liara's eyes widened. Did that mean they'd just been walking through these catacombs while a giant Thresher Maw was rummaging through the earth right beneath them? She spun around to Shepard but the other woman just let her flashlight wander over the room's walls, seemingly unimpressed by Eve's suggestion. The commander stopped when she spotted some kind of painting on an opposite wall and quickly approached it, leaving a still shocked Liara behind. _

_Since no one else seemed to be eager to say anything, Liara took it upon herself to comment on the information they'd just received... "Did I hear that right? Kalros, the mother of all Thresher Maws?" she asked, hoping to get a reaction from at least one of her companions now, but Shepard still seemed too fascinated by the painting she'd found, while James was his usual self and kicked some of the stones lying around out of his way, making Liara wonder if he was even paying attention to what was happening around him in the times he didn't get to kill anything – and why Shepard seemed to insist on picking both her and the brute whenever a mission involved caves..._

_Sighing (and not willing to give up that easily), she stepped behind Shepard who was still contemplating the picture of what Liara assumed was supposed to be the representation of what caused the tremors shaking the catacombs every few minutes. "I think that's Kalros..." she stated, forcing her voice to stay even. And finally, Shepard turned around and smilingly rubbed Liara's back in sympathy before turning away._

_"Well, I guess in that case we better get moving..."_

* * *

Liara gave a short laugh at the memory. She was still amazed how seemingly unimpressed Shepard was whenever they encountered enemies that would send everyone else – including Liara – cold chills down their spines... But the commander seemed to possess a, for Liara unexplainable, urge to meet every obstacle they encountered head-on...

_Must be the vanguard in her... _she mused as she entered the elevator whose doors had just hissed open, jolting her out of her memories that moment. She chose Shepard's floor on the terminal and leaned against the cold elevator wall while she waited for it to start its ascent.

As always, when led by Shepard, they'd made it out of Tuchanka's catacombs unharmed, but just when she'd thought it was frightening enough to know there was a giant Thresher Maw rummaging through the earth underneath them, it was absolutely terrifying to see said monster chase after the krogan's vehicles a couple of minutes later... And, as always when led by Shepard, that hadn't been the last time they'd seen the gigantic monster up close...

* * *

_"I know the odds don't usually mean much to us, but I don't think even we can make it to that tower..."_

_The giant Reaper blocking their passage ahead was more than intimidating, even from the distance and Liara couldn't help but inhale deeply when a cold chill ran down her spine. She took her eyes off the sight in front of her as soon as she heard both Eve and Wrex talking about their plan to summon Kalros to the Reaper. Raising her eyebrow, she shook her head, smiling sarcastically. Not even Shepard would be _that_-_

_"Well, after everything we've been through... why not? It's just a Thresher Maw."_

_Liara's head shot to the commander but Shepard's eyes already gleamed in excitement at the challenge while she turned towards the tower and their new adversary. And so the squad had ended up evading the Reaper's deathly beam while charging towards the shroud, the pillars and remains of a time long forgotten bursting and shattering all around them..._

_Just another day at the side of Commander Jane Shepard..._

* * *

The elevator stopped, its doors hissing open. Liara stepped out and activated her omni-tool. It was still early in the morning, but the salarian councilor hadn't given in until Liara had promised to wake Shepard up right this moment. She sighed. It seemed hard enough for Shepard to find time to sleep nowadays anyway and the commander wouldn't even have gone to her cabin if not for Garrus who had practically carried her to the elevator and threatened her with his drawn weapon until the doors had closed, calling after her that he'd personally sleep with his arms wrapped tightly around her should she leave her cabin before someone from her crew came to get her...

Even though she'd have loved to join her, Shepard had looked too tired for Liara to follow her. The woman needed to sleep and Liara wasn't sure that would have been what the commander would have had in mind had she joined her in her cabin...

Liara stepped in front of Shepard's cabin door, giving the commander just a couple more minutes of what she hoped was a peaceful sleep, which she definitely needed after what had happened on Tuchanka...

_"Did we just get shot by a Reaper?"_

Her own voice rang through her head as she recalled their suicide run towards the shroud. Even after blowing up a Collector base, Liara wasn't exactly thrilled at seeing Shepard's eagerness to accept one suicide mission after the other. Her accomplishments were amazing, no doubt, but that didn't make her invincible... Which must have been exactly what the commander had realized when she'd pressed a desperate kiss to Liara's lips that left the asari both speech- and breathless, before she'd charged right into a seemingly never ending wave of Brutes in order to activate the hammers at both sides of the battlefield to summon Kalros.

Liara shuddered at the memory of their following fight against those Brutes. Keeping them at a distance and evading their attacks was hard enough, but having to check if the commander was still alive made it a lot more difficult... Even though Liara had told herself that Shepard could take care of herself, she'd still not been able to stop searching for the redhead every couple of minutes, giving a sigh of relief when the commander had sped past her, killing a Brute in front of the asari on her way to the second hammer.

Once both hammers were activated, Shepard had sent both Liara and James back to the truck. With the ground shaking underneath them, the Reaper roaring angrily above them and the approaching Thresher Maw, Liara quickly realized how pointless it would have been to argue with Shepard at that moment, so she'd simply nodded and followed James back to the waiting truck, forcing herself not to turn around at all the troubling sounds of two fighting giants demolishing an ancient krogan ruin with a small, fragile human right in the middle of it...

The following minutes had been a torture for her, waiting in the stuffy and crammed Mako, jammed between James and a krogan while the vehicle made its way over the rocky ground to pick up Shepard at the shroud tower...

* * *

_The Mako pulled over and finally stopped. Liara immediately squeezed herself free and waited impatiently for the door to open. Once it did, it revealed Shepard's lone figure, standing with her back to the vehicle, her eyes on the tower in the distance releasing the cure for the Genophage across the planet in snowflake-like, gleaming particles._

_Wrex and Eve climbed out of a Mako beside her, pausing as they watched the spectacle in awe, but Liara quickly passed them. Despite the beauty of the scenery, her forehead was creased in worry for only one person right now..._

_She approached the woman carefully and placed a gentle hand on her shoulder to jolt her out of her thoughts. Shepard tensed for a second but then relaxed when Liara turned her around, draping an arm around the commander's waist and slightly leaning on her while she led her back to the Mako, the idea of being squeezed against another person in the crammed vehicle suddenly not that bad anymore..._

_"Are you all right?" she whispered, sitting down next to Shepard while they waited for the rest to join them inside the vehicle again._

_Shepard's head rose as she noticed James climb back into the vehicle. The marine gave her a short nod but kept his distance to give them some privacy and sat down on a bench at the other end of the vehicle. The commander sighed, lowering her gaze again as she whispered, "I couldn't save him..."_

_Knowing exactly who she was talking about, Liara leaned closer and wrapped her arm around Shepard's shoulder, running her fingers through the woman's hair as she placed a kiss on her temple. Shepard slowly nodded, still in thought, and continued, "He was within reach and I still couldn't save him..."_

_"You can't save everyone. We all made the decision to help you and we're willing to accept the concequences," Liara whispered, continuing to soothingly run her fingers through Shepard's hair._

_"You know the worst part?" Shepard turned her head to the side, locking eyes with Liara. The asari silently waited for her to continue and Shepard sighed. "The worst part is that it made me realize how uncertain everything is right now... How vulnerable that suddenly makes every single one of my squad and my former squad... Everyone could be next... One wrong decision and I have another friend's blood on my hands... It suddenly got so personal..."_

_Liara nodded but still held on to her belief. "We're with you every step of the way, Shepard," she softly spoke, making sure Shepard's eyes were still on her. She took Shepard's hand with her free one and squeezed it gently. "We believe in what you do and every single one of us would gladly do anything it takes to help you carry the burden the entire galaxy has placed upon you. Everyone's life is at risk, but it always has been... I might be dead already if you hadn't saved me on Therum and let me join your crew, Garrus might have been taken out by all those mercenaries on Omega if you hadn't helped him, Saren's agents might have caught up with Tali on the Citadel if you hadn't found her in time..." She smiled at her encouragingly. "Do I need to continue?"_

_Shepard shook her head, a shy smile starting to tug at her lips as she leaned on Liara once more with a heavy sigh, resting her head on the asari's shoulder. "I just don't want to lose you..."_

_"You won't!"_

* * *

"It's open," Shepard's voice came muffled from inside her cabin, jolting Liara out of her memories. She hadn't even noticed she'd knocked on the door...

Liara entered and found the cabin empty. Turning her head from side to side, she started while still walking forward, "Shepard, there's something you need to hear..."

"All right," came Shepard's response from inside her bathroom. Liara raised her brows when she recognized Shepard's tired tone, silently regretting that she hadn't been there for her this time. She should have known Shepard wouldn't be able to find sleep after what she'd just been through...

"Is this a bad time?" she asked, respectfully waiting in front of the closed door.

There was a silence before the door opened. "It's fine, tell me what's going on." Shepard stepped out of the bathroom, water still dripping from her face and hair.

A sad smile tugged at Liara's lips as she took a step forward and brushed a few stray hairs from Shepard's face, resting her hand on the commander's cheek while she spoke. "The salarian councilor has an urgent matter."

Shepard's eyebrow rose. "Let me guess," she sighed, a tired smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. "He called the Comm Room."

Liara nodded and followed Shepard into the elevator. Its doors closed and Liara leaned against the backside wall, staring at Shepard's back intently while her eyes turned black.

"Ah, that dream again..." she murmured, snaking her arms around Shepard's waist and resting her head on the commander's shoulder.

Still keeping her head low, Shepard smiled to herself. "Dr. T'Soni, were you in my head again?"

Liara smiled, mumbling against Shepard's shoulder, "Our minds are linked, it's getting a lot easier for me to read it..." She shrugged her shoulders. "And since you were not willing to tell me about it yourself..."

Shepard sighed. "Well, in that case I'm just glad you didn't see all my dirty thoughts..."

"Oh, I saw _those_ too..."

"Of course..."

"Shepard... that kiss on Tuchanka... was that a 'Goodbye'-kiss?"

"A... erm, no, I thought of it more as a 'I just remembered how much I love you'-kiss..."

"Huh... It felt more like a 'I am about to do something reckless that could cost me my life again'-kiss..."

"Nah, those don't include tongue..."

"If you say so... Just make sure I never get one of _those_."

"Is it just me or does this seem like an awfully long elevator ride...?"

* * *

_Next up: the Citadel coup... _


	10. Chapter 10

_A/N: Apologies once again, I wish I could provide any faster updates but as for the moment... doesn't look that way..._

_Anyway, after playing the Citadel DLC "a few" times I have to admit that Bioware even managed to make me like Kaidan, which, in turn, forces me to now rewrite quite a few parts of the story (see? I can be nice...). I also like Traynor, so I'll have to try and be nice to them from now on (ah, the challenges of writing...)._

* * *

**"Cerberus, Reapers... They'll all pay for this war, one way or another."**

**.**

_"We're still in this. The gods of war haven't given up on us yet,"_ Admiral Hackett's voice rang out through the open door of the Comm Room.

A sad smile spread across Liara's face while she waited for Shepard's debriefing with Hackett and Anderson to end; waiting for Admiral Hackett to stop bombarding her bondmate with even more missions just so she could add another mission to the list herself... Ironic, really...

When Shepard had returned from the Citadel – saving a Council that had never seemed willing to help her in any way during their previous run-ins – a quick change of clothes had been all that had been granted to her before Hackett had requested an update on the situation.

Liara knew that Shepard was one of the few people who even had a chance of success in ending this war, and during her first time on the Normandy, Shepard's strength and determination had always fascinated her, but she wasn't a naive archeologist anymore. Spending so much time with the commander, not just as a superior or friend but as a bondmate as well, Liara had quickly started seeing through the mask of the stoic soldier and had found a woman with physical and mental limits just like everyone else. What hurt Liara was the fact that Shepard's determination was still strong enough to force her to overcome those limits day after day, rarely giving in to the exhaustion that no doubt plagued her, and that there was nothing Liara could do about it, because whether she liked it or not, the galaxy needed Shepard, needed her to charge ahead, to be a symbol of strength and success for everyone watching her...

She was jolted out of her musing when she heard footsteps approach the War Room and as she raised her head just in time to see Shepard exiting the Comm Room, rubbing her neck and trying to work out some of the tension there.

Taking a deep breath – forcing the guilty expression from her face – Liara pushed herself off the railing she'd been leaning on and approached the Commander.

"Shepard, do you have a moment?"

Shepard stopped, turning her head to meet Liara's eyes and the asari involuntarily swallowed when she noticed the other woman's tired expression and her struggle to mask it.

_Goddess, I am so sorry..._

. . .

"Commander, I heard about Cerberus' attempted coup and that assassin... Are you all right? I imagine the fight in the skycar was fairly intense..." Samantha turned away from her console and lightly grazed Shepard's arm, who'd just entered the CIC after her briefing in the Comm Room.

"It was," Shepard nodded, her energetic mask already back in place. "Fortunately, I had Liara with me to take over the steering while I frightened Kai off our skycar..." She smiled at said asari standing next to her, the datapad containing information about the mission from Asari High Command she'd just informed Shepard about still in her hand. "By the way..." Shepard turned to Liara. "There's something-"

"Was that when you lost control over the skycar and crashed?"

Shepard's eyebrows rose and she turned back to the comm specialist. "Pardon?"

Samantha shrugged her shoulders. "I simply heard that your skycar crashed at some point. I guess now I know why..."

Liara's jaw dropped but Shepard quickly placed a soothing hand on her arm and, as a precaution, stepped between the two women. "Well, that certainly wasn't Liara's fault," she hurried to answer, "And we all made it out alive, so I wouldn't necessarily call it a _'crash'_..."

"I'm sure you managed to get the skycar down safely as soon as you were back behind the controls..." Samantha gave her a warm smile.

"Yeah..." Shepard forced a smile before turning back to the fuming asari behind her. "There's something else I should probably mention..." she started, nervously rubbing the nape of her neck.

Liara sighed and brushed a hand over her forehead. Could it get any worse?

"I'm home..."

Her eyes widened.

Shepard shot her an apologetic smile before they both turned their heads towards the airlock where a happy Kaidan had just dropped the bag holding his belongings, looking around the CIC with a wide grin on his face...

_Oh great..._

. . .

"Well...?" Shepard turned to the blue beauty in bed next to her and propped herself on her elbow, smiling when the asari brushed a damp strand of hair out of her lover's face. "Was that convincing enough that I'm not interested in Kaidan?"

Liara shrugged her shoulders in feigned thought. "I don't know..." she mused before turning her head back to Shepard, her expression serious. "Why did you bring him back aboard?"

"Because he begged...?"

"You could have said no..."

Shepard sighed, her hand tracing the outline of Liara's body covered only by a thin blanket. "What do you want me to say? He had these sad puppy eyes, I couldn't just leave him at the Citadel... You had the same ones in that stasis bubble back on Therum..."

Liara gasped indignantly, her accusing eyes boring into Shepard's while she lightly slapped the redhead's arm. "I did not!"

Shepard grinned. "Yes you did... though yours were much more adorable..."

"I sure hope so..." Liara huffed and turned away from the still grinning woman.

It didn't take long until she felt Shepard's lips on her shoulder making their way towards Liara's neck, warm breath hitting the sensitive ridges there as Shepard whispered, "Would it help if I'd let you use your biotics on me again?"

A grin crossing her lips, Liara shrugged innocently. "It would be a start..."

Without waiting for an answer, the asari spun around and in one smooth motion she was straddling Shepard, leaning down to capture her lips with a triumphant grin. Her biotics flared up, covering her entire body in blue tendrils that slowly snaked around her frame, carrying the familiar buzzing feeling to Shepard's body wherever they touched the other's skin.

Shepard inhaled sharply when one of Liara's hands lazily trailed down her chest, her fingers barely touching her skin, and the asari couldn't stop her triumphant grin to widen. With Shepard being a biotic herself, Liara knew how mad it drove the commander not to be in control, but given the circumstances, Liara deemed the punishment only appropriate...

_"Erm, Commander?"_

Shepard and Liara looked at each other, both sighing inwardly.

"Yes, Joker?" Shepard swallowed when Liara leaned back down, languidly kissing the human's pulse point.

_"I'm sorry to interrupt and I _swear_ I wasn't listening in... well, at least not _this_ time..."_ The pilot cleared his throat. _"Anyway, we just got a message in and... I think you should hear this before we leave the Citadel..."_

Shepard rolled her eyes, still refusing to move while Liara's biotics hummed around the two of them. "What's it about?"

_"I... You should really hear this for yourself... Could you come down to the CIC?"_

"Not unless it's _very_ urgent," Shepard answered, dragging her fingernails across one of Liara's thighs.

_"It's about Thane... I think you should visit him in Huerta Memorial..."_

Shepard's movements immediately stopped and her eyes shot to Liara who simply nodded, climbing off of her without a word to let Shepard hurriedly gather her clothes and rush out of the room.

. . .

_"Goodbye Thane. You won't be alone long..."_

The doors behind her closed and Shepard stepped out into the hallway, trying to ignore the doctors who already entered the room she'd just left, starting to prepare it for the next, still living, patient. It was brutal, but it was the reality; there was no time to offer space to mourn the lost in here while there were still patients in need, whose lives might still be saved...

Silently, she made her way through the hospital, her distant eyes stoically fixed on the immediate area ahead of her while doctors rushed by and she evaded patients groaning on makeshift beds at her feet like a sleepwalker.

More than once a doctor brushed her arm or shoved past her a bit too roughly, almost making her lose her balance, but those things barely even registered in her mind. All she could focus on right now was the memory of Thane's eyes as they had lost their spark, as life had left his body... She'd seen it many times, mostly in the eyes of her enemies, sometimes her comrades, but this time had been different... It was the second time someone else had had to finish a job she couldn't... First Mordin, now Thane... they both had given their lives to finish a mission she had been tasked with and try as she might, she couldn't see the reason why she was still alive with barely a scratch while her crew had to die one by one for her shortcomings...

She passed the entrance area of Huerta Memorial and stopped when she'd reached the terminal opposite the reception, the nurses and doctors behind it too occupied with the group of aliens asking for status updates on their loved ones to notice her. Shepard's eyes finally blinked and some of the life in them returned when she turned away from the elevator and, on the off-chance that she might get lucky, activated the sales terminal, her fingers slowly browsing through the offered 'Get well soon'-presents which seemed almost bizarre now... One only had to take a look around to realize that a box of sweets wouldn't replace the screaming soldier's leg or help the sobbing asari overcome the loss of her sister... but those things weren't what she was looking for...

Finally, after what felt like an eternity for her, Shepard's finger stopped and a sad smile crossed her lips...

* * *

"To you, Thane." Shepard raised the whiskey bottle – it seemed Kaidan would never get his present – and took a large gulp before she tilted it, letting some of the liquor run into the artificial lake before her. _May you find peace across the sea..._

She leaned forward on the railing and watched the two liquids mingle until the whiskey had entirely vanished, the lake returning to its artificial, almost frozen, state – the perfect illusion, just like the Citadel itself... Sometimes she had to fight the urge to simply let her biotics flare up and destroy the almost mocking tranquility all around her, to shout at everyone nearby to finally wake up, but she didn't need Liara's calm personality to know it was futile...

The Cerberus coup may have shaken up a few residents, but even with the destruction from the attack, the fires still burning here and there, the Citadel managed to exude the feeling of safety. The entire place seemed to struggle with the task of making its inhabitants feel safe again, even with the destruction and war that was still going on all around it and Shepard suspected most of the people here would sooner or later choose to believe the lie, to feel safe on this station once more.

Her grip involuntarily tightened on the whiskey bottle. Nobody was safe anymore...

With a sigh, she raised the bottle to her lips once more and after a few gulps, she closed her eyes and murmured, "And to you, Mordin." She repeated her previous action and disturbed the lake's even surface once more with the added liquid. _May your sacrifice never be forgotten..._

A sacrifice the salarian shouldn't have been forced to make... It had been _her_ job to cure the genophage, it should be _her_ pieces scattered all around the destroyed Shroud tower... Just as it should have been _her_ flesh Kai Leng's sword had torn apart...

_"Had to be me. Someone else might have gotten it wrong..."_

Mordin's last words rang through Shepard's head and she took another large gulp from the whiskey until the burning sensation in her throat almost made her cough it all up again.

When would the galaxy finally see that she wasn't the hero everyone made of her? They wanted her as a vanguard, the one to secure the path to their future, but she still had to rely on others to do that... Another gulp. And it was her job to make sure those giving their life so that she could charge on would not be forgotten.

Shepard's head lazily turned to the half-empty bottle in her right hand and she suddenly couldn't bare taking another sip from the liquor. Her lips pressed together tightly at the sudden nausea rising inside her at her next thought... To be honest, she wasn't even sure she wanted to come out of this whole war alive just to see the whole galaxy return to its former state of ignorance...

But... Shepard sighed, there was no time dwelling on it now. The war was far from over and she still had a job to do...

So, with just a small hint of satisfaction, Shepard carelessly tossed the whiskey bottle into the lake – silently satisfied with the disarray she had caused – and turned away.

"Commander, there's still a message marked 'urgent' from Admiral Hackett at your private terminal..."

* * *

Shepard kept her head low as she rushed through the CIC and towards the elevator, past the comm specialist.

Whatever it was, it could wait...

"Not now, Traynor!"

. . .

The elevator doors opened and Liara shot out and into Engineering, her head shooting from side to side while she tried to decide which room to enter first in her search, biting her lower lip in worry.

When Shepard hadn't shown up in her office after her return from the Citadel, it hadn't taken the Shadow Broker long to find reports from Huerta Memorial that documented the death of a drell named Tannor Nuana... It hadn't even taken her network to make the connection and a sad sigh had escaped her at the note. _Oh no..._

She had been aboard the Normandy SR-2 just once while it had still been under Cerberus control and during that visit she had met Shepard's entire new crew, including the calm drell assassin.

It hadn't seemed relevant at the time, but the more she thought about it now, the clearer it became that there had been a certain atmosphere between him and Shepard. She still couldn't decide whether it had been just a deep respect towards one another or if there had been more, but Thane's presence always seemed to have a calming effect on the normally energetic commander. Liara had known about Thane's illness and seeing the wound Kai Leng had caused on the Citadel, it had been very obvious the drell wouldn't make it much longer, but when did the certainty of death make the parting any easier?

And Shepard's absence was a clear sign that she was suffering, probably hiding somewhere aboard the ship to deal with the pain alone, which was exactly why Liara had spent the last fifteen minutes rushing from room to room and from floor to floor in search for the commander.

She was about to approach Javik's room when some movement down in the Cargo Bay caught her eye. Stepping closer to the window overlooking the Bay, Liara exhaled in relief when she noticed the familiar figure standing prominently in the middle of the room. Her breath caught in her throat, however, when she caught sight of James storming towards Shepard and knocking her to the ground with a forceful right hook to the woman's chin.

Liara's biotics immediately flared up, covering her entire body in angry flames at the scene taking place below her, but before she could rush back into the elevator (or simply smash the glass in front of her to pounce on the man who dared hurting her love) Shepard was already crawling back to her feet, shaking her head quickly before she charged at James, knocking him off his feet and landing on top of him, punching the side of his face once before she rolled herself off of him and remained lying on her back, panting heavily.

Liara's biotics cooled down and finally vanished when realization dawned on her. She placed a hand on the glass in front of her and settled her sad eyes on the woman lying on the ground underneath her.

She may not like it, but while she herself could bring Shepard some sort of peace at times, the commander sometimes needed a completely different sort of relief. She needed to work out, to exhaust herself until every muscle in her body burned with pain, dulling her mental pain in the process.

A sad smile played around Liara's lips as she watched the two figures still lying on their backs. She hadn't liked the marine at first – and that had nothing to do with the fact that he had pointed a gun at her during their first meeting on Mars, even though she'd killed people for less... He was always too loud, to full of himself for Liara's taste, but he still seemed to have a certain sensitivity when it came to Shepard's moods, and seeing Shepard's relaxed posture even from her elevated position, it seemed Liara would have to accept the fact that James could help the commander in a way she couldn't – and definitely never would! Goddess, just the thought of hurting Shepard's soft skin sent a cold shiver down Liara's spine...

Liara let her eyes linger on Shepard for a few more seconds before she pushed herself off the window and activated the elevator controls to take her back to her office.

* * *

It wasn't long after she'd shut down her terminal and lain down in bed that she heard the door to her office open and someone approach the bed in the dark with soft footsteps. With a tired sigh, Shepard sank into Liara's arms and buried her face in the asari's neck without a word.

Smiling, Liara ran a hand through Shepard's hair and closed her eyes. It was her turn to bring Shepard the peace she needed and she would gladly do so, even if it just meant lying next to her and holding the limp body in her arms while silent tears ran down the woman's cheeks...

* * *

_Next up: The Citadel DLC Part 1_

_And following, another Music Shuffle thingie. This one especially for James... :) I totally blame the sentence: "A guy like you should wear a warning" for this idea, so say what you want but I liked him when all we had of his character were pictures... aaaand his tattoos aren't too bad either... :)_

* * *

**"Toxic" A Static Lullaby**

**.**

Making her way through the Shuttle Bay, Shepard suddenly froze, her eyes zeroing in on the scene taking place in front of her.

Without blinking, her eyes ran over strong arms, the muscles underneath the tanned, shining skin tensing with every pull-up, a light sheen of sweat reflecting the bay's light every time the muscles relaxed before tensing again for another pull-up.

A single droplet of sweat ran slowly down a tattooed neck until it soaked the tight shirt covering a heaving chest. Her tongue involuntarily darted out, running over her lower lip as Shepard's eyes slowly raked over the shirt until they stopped once again, caught by the sight of the shirt lifting ever so slightly every time the body lowered, allowing a short glimpse at the perfectly sculpted abs hidden underneath.

Shepard inhaled sharply as her eyes remained fixed on the spectacle of tensing and relaxing muscles rippling underneath the smooth, glistening skin. She swallowed hard, transfixed for a few seconds longer before moving on...

With an almost inaudible sigh, the commander's eyes wandered down over a slightly protruding hip bone to dark uniform pants gently hugging a nice-

A dull pain suddenly shooting through the back of her head broke her out of her transfixed state and brought her back to reality. Blinking a few times in confusion, she turned around just in time to see Liara lowering her helmet.

"Oh, I'm sorry. I didn't see you there..." the asari said, not the slightest hint of regret in her voice. "Am I interrupting something?" She smiled sweetly at Shepard as she shoved past the commander, tugging the helmet under her arm while holstering the submachine gun she'd just grabbed from the weapon bench with her other free hand.

Shepard's hand left the bruised spot where the helmet had (absolutely accidentally, she was sure) hit the back of her head and instead started rubbing the nape of her neck while she followed the asari to the shuttle. "No... not at all. I was just..." She nervously cleared her throat under Liara's watchful eyes and quickly entered the shuttle, not daring to shoot a last glance over her shoulder. "Let's go."

"M-hm..." Liara shot the oblivious marine who remained on his spot in the bay behind them an angry glare before she followed Shepard into the shuttle, its door closing behind her with a hiss, ready to take them to their next (hopefully distracting enough) mission.


	11. Chapter 11

**"Excuse me, who is this? You're on an unsecured channel, and you're putting Commander Shepard in danger!"**

**.**

_"In danger?"_ Liara's voice audibly dropped in suspicion, _"Who is this?"_

"Hang on. Joker mentioned Staff Analyst Brooks, yes? That's her." Smiling, Shepard ejected a thermal clip while she stepped over a dead Merc Trooper on her way through the wards. It felt good to hear her bondmate's somewhat concerned (and of course admonishing) voice after having to fight her way through these mercs on her own until now, and Shepard wouldn't have it any other way.

Still, she just couldn't resist... "Everybody play nice."

Her mischievous smile widened while she checked a nearby terminal for saved credits; she could almost hear Liara's jaw tense through the comm...

And it had all started so harmlessly...

* * *

_"Where are we going?"_

_Shepard wrapped her arm around the skeptical asari next to her while she led her along an empty hallway, neon lights of all colors illuminating them through the glass windows to their left._

_"I told you, it's a surprise..."_

_"And I told you I don't like surprises..." Liara rolled her eyes but let herself get pulled towards a door at the far end of the hallway where they stopped, her eyes quickly scanning the immediate area in search of any clues. "Whose apartment is this?"_

_"It's mine." A smile playing around her lips, Shepard activated her omni-tool, tapped in the access code and the door hissed open. She turned back to Liara, shrugging almost apologetically when she added, "Well, ours..."_

_Liara studied her skeptically for a second before she turned to the apartment and her eyes widened while they fought to take in everything at once: the large windows overlooking the buzzing on the streets below, the piano right next to the entrance, the fireplace crackling softly in front of two comfortable couches and a chair, the open kitchen to their right, the stairs leading to even more open space and rooms..._

_She felt two arms wrap around her from behind and Shepard's warm breath against her neck. "What do you say?"_

_"I..." Liara swallowed once, forcing her mind to form words. "It's..." She shook her head, still too confused. "How...?"_

_Shepard shrugged and freed Liara from her embrace, still keeping a hand on the asari's lower back while she steered her further into the apartment. _

_It had taken her a few days to recover from the events on the Citadel, but after a mission from Admiral Hackett (luckily far enough from the space station to give Shepard some much needed distance) she had finally read Hackett's message on her terminal, which had ultimately resulted in her inheriting Anderson's apartment on the Citadel..._

_Even so, Shepard didn't understand Hackett ordering the Normandy into dry dock. Sure, the ship had seen quite a bit of action lately, but the damage it had taken was minimal at best... A few scratches (or, according to EDI, "torn holes") from Reaper encounters on the hull here and there, a couple of dents left after Wrex' and Grunt's departure, a few non-functional security doors... Plus there was still the issue of the dead pyjak in the ventilation system and the rachni nobody dared approaching in a dark corner of the Shuttle Bay, but all in all it was nothing to get excited about really... But orders were orders..._

_Still pulling the perplexed asari along with her, Shepard gave her bondmate a warm smile. "It's a long story, I'll tell you later... But first..." she stopped, almost visibly wincing before she continued, "there's one more thing I need to tell you..."_

_Liara nodded, still unable to answer because of the many thoughts rushing through her head at the moment..._

_They had an apartment... all for themselves..._

_They had rarely been separated during missions since Shepard still insisted on keeping Liara as a constant squad member, and they spent almost every night together in one of their two cabins, but having a place just for themselves without the fear of any AIs monitoring them, without a crew constantly interrupting-_

_"Hey Commander, you didn't happen to bring more beer, did you? We're kinda running low on it right now, so if you still wanna join our poker game, you'd have to make do with soda..."_

_Liara's eyes shot to the owner of the unexpected voice, narrowing in frustration while she felt her hopes of some well-deserved privacy and alone time with Shepard vanish like (according to the Normandy's pilot) the beer in the apartment's fridge..._

_"Nope. Sorry, Joker, but I'll get on it as soon as I can..."_

_Joker nodded and disappeared again, and as if to taunt her further, the sounds of laughter and chatter finally broke through to Liara and reached her ears, making her wonder how she could have missed them when entering the apartment... Probably a mind clouded by wishful thinking..._

_In the meantime, Shepard had rounded her, stepped in front of her to regain her attention and shrugged apologetically, that goddess-forsaken charming smile on her lips once more while she rubbed the nape of her neck... "Well, the thing is... the crew already knows about it too..."_

* * *

Liara's eyes narrowed as she turned off her comm, her jaw working furiously. Without slowing her pace, she hurried through the dirty alleys of the Citadel's lower wards towards Shepard's position, roughly shoving past aliens on her way.

Of course there had to be another _woman_ involved in their new mission. As if their life wasn't complicated enough... Liara huffed. She didn't like being the last to know about Shepard's new acquaintances, especially not from a pilot speaking only in half-finished sentences between gasps for air after his "run" back to the Normandy. So, without hesitation, Liara had rushed by the exhausted pilot and left the ship on her own, struggling to make her way through the crowded streets while at the same time checking her omni-tool for any useful information she could find on this Brooks woman...

A loud alarm going off in the distance made her jump and her hand shot out to activate her comm once again, already knowing who was responsible for the noise...

"Shepard! What are you doing?" she breathed, turning her hurried pace into a full run now. "I heard that from here!"

_"It's all under control!"_

The asari huffed, fighting the urge to roll her eyes at Shepard's assurance – which would have been difficult since she was momentarily evading various stains on the street ahead of her, trying not to slow down while the sounds of a firefight in the distance mocked her already worried mind.

Her blinking omni-tool brought her back to reality and she activated it while evading a staggering salarian. She slowed down just enough to scan the new info and gave a sigh of relief. "Shepard, Brooks sent me the NavPoint to the skycar lot. I'll meet you there."

_"Good."_

"What do we know about these mercenaries?"

A turian leaning against a wall watched her rush by, shaking his head while he lifted a steaming cup to his lips, closing his eyes in contentment when he felt the dull pain in his head dim; he was getting too old for these nights out...

_"They have guns and don't like me."_

Liara shook her head in exhaustion, leaning against a nearby wall to catch her breath while she waited impatiently for a door in front of her to open. "That's not helpful."

She should have just stayed in bed this morning...

* * *

"Sure, I can talk about Commander Shepard. Big topic."

_Liara's brows furrowed and she groaned as she turned to the side, cracking an eye open to find the other side of the bed empty._

"People are quick to judge. They don't know the whole story. I don't even know the whole story."

_With a yawn, she sat up and stretched languidly before pulling the blanket aside and getting out of the bed. The empty, dimmed hallway greeted her as she left the bedroom, the sound of her bare feet lightly tapping on the cold floor being the only noise aside from the recording playing downstairs._

_After hours of smiling politely, they had finally managed to get the gathered crew to leave the apartment, but by the time the last person had been heading back to the Normandy, both her and Shepard had been too tired to do anything more than sink into the soft covers of their new bed and fall asleep..._

"Thing is, you never heard a complaint. Never once got 'No, sir. I can't do that.' She never hesitated."

_She straightened her nightshirt before softly walking down the stairs, her fingers sliding along the metallic handrail absent-mindedly while she followed the familiar recorded voice still coming from downstairs._

_Once she'd reached the kitchen, a sad smile crossed her face as she leaned against the nearby wall and watched the other woman sitting at the kitchen counter, too focused on the datapad in her hands to notice her yet._

"And I worry sometimes she forgets: there's a whole bunch of people who lose sleep over her getting back home."

_A sad sigh escaped the redhead and Liara finally pushed herself off the wall; she had heard enough. She stepped behind Shepard's barstool, getting the other's attention by gently running a hand through Shepard's still slightly tousled hair._

"Maybe it doesn't need to be said. Maybe we're too dumb to say it."

_Shepard weakly lifted her head, a tired smile playing around her lips as Liara leaned down to kiss her._

"Soldiers like the Commander are rare."

_"How many more times are you going to listen to it?" Liara asked softly, cupping Shepard's cheek after she'd sat down on Shepard's lap._

"Women like Shepard... even more rare."

_Shepard shrugged, her eyes growing distant._

_"Until I start believing it..."_

* * *

Unbelieavable!

Liara huffed for what felt like the hundredth time while her eyes fixed on the two mercenaries opposing her. By now, they should have realized how useless their weapons were against the blue barrier protecting her body, but they still insisted on spending thermal clip after thermal clip in the hopes of breaking it... It was almost amusing, had the situation not been this tense...

The mercenaries had shown up soon after she had reached the skycar lot where she'd waited for Shepard – making her realize once more that nothing was ever simple if Shepard was involved... Without much efford, the mercs had been tossed through the air like ragdolls by her biotics and were probably lying behind some of the many displayed skycars now, but just as Liara had been about to approach a skycar for cover, her shield had lit up when a volley of shots hit it. The shots hadn't managed to break through her shield, but since Liara had to wait for Shepard anyway, she had decided to simply wait... plus she had always wondered how many thermal clips those mercenaries carried around with them; such information could even prove valuable sometimes – especially when one counted a certain commander amongst their friends...

Another thermal clip was ejected and the mercenary raised his gun again when Liara noticed movement from the corner of her eye.

_Finally..._

The barrier fell, followed by a rush of biotic energy that forcefully smashed the remaining two mercenaries against the wall behind them, their limp bodies sinking to the ground where they remained unmoving.

"Having a bad day, Shepard?"

Even though she would never admit it later, the relief on Shepard's face at seeing her was evident – as was the predatory gleam in the human's eyes, which, involuntarily, caused Liara to coquettishly place her hands on her tilted hips.

"You could say that."

With so much as a short glimpse at Liara's handiwork, Shepard passed the two bodies and approached the asari who already pointed over her shoulder.

"Landing pad is over there but it's behind a locked gate."

"Let's look for a control panel." Shepard passed her by, some of the woman's familiar scent wafting to Liara whose eyes closed involuntarily as she inhaled deeply, greedily. On one thing, she and Traynor could agree on: Shepard _did_ always smell very good... She had never managed to find out why the commander always seemed to be surrounded by a light, almost floral fragrance. At first, she had simply assumed every human smelled like this, but after some (mostly disappointing) research, she had come to the conclusion that the scent was simply Shepard's and the human had yet to reveal her secret and explain why, even though she spent most of her days in battle, the usual smell of sweat, dirt and smoke just didn't seem to be clinging to her- ...and why was she even thinking about this? Now, of all times?

Be it Shepard's intoxicating scent or the light tingling she could still feel coursing through her entire body from her biotics, Liara licked her lips absent-mindedly while her eyes followed the other's movement, feasting upon what was on display...

"I like your outfit."

The words were out before she had time to think them through, once more reminded of the deprivation of some much needed privacy with the commander as Shepard sauntered away. The woman stopped, a mischievous grin already tugging at her lips as she lifted an amused eyebrow, forcing Liara to clear her throat in embarassment. "Control panel, right."

The mischievous grin turned into a wide smile and Shepard spun on her heels, walking back to the nervous asari with slow, predatory steps. Liara's breathing quickened when she felt Shepard's hands snake around her waist, pulling her closer against the other's warm body. Hot breath hit the side of her neck when Shepard whispered, "Are you as turned on as I am right now?"

Liara swallowed. She had been accustomed to Shepard's "moods" by now, arguing to herself that it had something to do with the adrenaline rush from charging headlong into a group of enemies, and she had to admit that watching this savage side of the woman – while knowing what those hands could do other than kill, what this mouth could do other than give orders (_Stop it!_) – had on more than one occasion raised her own body temperature...

Just as she was about to open her mouth to answer (or gasp for much needed air – she hadn't decided yet...) a cracking noise in their comm interrupted them and Brooks' voice asked, _"Erm, Commander? You still there?"_

With a heavy sigh, Shepard let go of Liara and turned away from her, activating her comm. "We're on it," she answered curtly while heading to a closed office door at the far side of the skycar lot.

Liara brushed a hand over her flustered forehead before following the commander, a sigh escaping her; this was going to be a long day...

* * *

_"And you're sure you will be okay?"_

_Shepard smiled and nodded once, reaching out to soothingly run a hand along Liara's arm. "Yeah, don't worry about me. I just need a few minutes to finish cleaning up the mess the guys left yesterday and then I'll return to the Normandy. You just go ahead, it won't take long..."_

_The asari bit her lower lip in thought while she studied the woman's expression. When Shepard simply returned her gaze, her smile never faltering, Liara finally sighed and nodded in defeat. She leaned forward to place a quick kiss on Shepard's lips before she turned away from the open apartment door and headed for the elevator at the far side of the hallway._

_Once she heard the elevator doors close, Shepard pushed herself off the doorframe and turned back to Anderson's – no, _her _apartment... It still felt wrong to just take this apartment Anderson had intended for himself and Kahlee Sanders; it felt as if, by accepting the gift, she had involuntarily taken away the couple's future with it..._

_Reaching for the hidden brandy bottle she'd discovered behind one of the statues above the fireplace, she opened it and took a sip from the (no doubt) expensive liquor, a smile playing around her lips; it seemed she'd have to start searching for another outlet for her worries or else she might not even make it to the final confrontation with the Reapers..._

Though the reporters would have a blast..._ She chuckled while sitting down on one of the comfortable couches, letting her eyes wander around the apartment. _'Possible savior of the galaxy tragically died while charging at imaginary foe in drunken stupor – salarian shopkeeper thinks about suing Alliance for hole in wall.'

_After taking another sip, Shepard sank deeper into the couch and closed her eyes, luxuring in the silence surrounding her for once, but the calm was short-lived... Immediately her thoughts went back to Anderson fighting for his life on Earth while she allowed herself to just sit back and do nothing... The following pang of guilt made her bolt up on the couch immediately and she had to take a deep, calming breath – before sighing in defeat and taking a large gulp from the bottle still in her hand._

_She didn't doubt Anderson's words; during the entire time she'd known him, the man had quickly become a mentor for her and by now she considered him more of a father figure than a simple superior. Anderson wanted her to have his apartment, that much was clear and she'd be lying to herself if she thought the man hadn't come to see her as a daughter, but that strong bond made it even harder for her to keep a clear head during her missions instead of worrying about Anderson's fate back on Earth..._

_Her musing was broken by an automated voice ringing through the apartment at that moment._

'You have received a new message.'

_Shepard sighed and ran a hand through her hair before she pushed herself up. The bottle of liquor lazily swinging in the hand by her side, she approached the blinking light on the terminal in the apartment's study, no doubt holding a new mission for her..._

* * *

_"Get to the shuttle!"_

Before Joker had even finished the word "shuttle", Liara felt Shepard's hands around her waist, pulling her out of the line of fire from a group of approaching mercenaries. In the fight that had followed their reunion with Wrex, Liara had soon lost sight of the commander, focusing instead on staying alive herself at the seemingly endless waves of enemies attacking them.

So seeing the Kodiak set down in front of them almost felt like a relief, hadn't there been Shepard's hands still tightly wrapped around her waist, the commander's body pressed into hers...

"I'll drive shotgun!"

Wrex shot past the couple and jumped into the waiting shuttle, shots from the approaching enemies bouncing off its hull while Shepard and Liara followed the krogan who'd already claimed his seat – by the looks of the sulking woman standing next to him, he'd scared Brooks out of...

Shepard and Liara settled for a bench opposite the closing hatch and Joker steered the shuttle away from the skycar lot.

"So, I guess it's back to the apartment..."

Shepard's head shot up and her hand, which had (miraculously) found its way on Liara's thigh, stopped moving instantly. She could still feel her hands vibrate from the highly effective gun Wrex had tossed her, and that, coupled with the third or fourth – she had stopped counting after getting ambushed by mercenaries, falling through a fishtank and fighting her way through hordes of hostile troops alone while only barely enough energy to stay conscious – adrenaline rush that day had only increased her longing for the gorgeous asari fighting at her side... Oh, right, _and_ there was the brandy still coursing through her system and making her head spin - probably due to the continuous, increased heartrate in the last couple of hours that somehow prevented her body from dampening those effects...

"Erm, sure... the apartment..." She sighed, tiredly nodding her head. It seemed she'd have to wait a bit longer for the time alone with Liara she'd been hoping for after this...

_Time to work on your self-control, Shepard..._

* * *

_Next up: The Citadel Part 2 (I just couldn't do it in one chapter, sorry...) aka The torment continues...  
_


End file.
